


Decapitated

by SarahEverton



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Action, Angst, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-01-25 05:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12524264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahEverton/pseuds/SarahEverton
Summary: A warning gets sent to the DEO about the President's upcoming visit to National City.Disaster strikes.Left with the rubble, the DEO team must pick up the pieces and find who is behind the attack.





	1. Chapter 1

A glance upward from her microscope made it clear that not even two minutes had passed since Alex had last checked her watch.

It was an incredibly slow day at the DEO. Not that she minded – not every day had to end in a military intervention or an alien attack. She was more than happy to catch up on her lab work, since it had been delayed through other responsibilities.

But she was waiting for the clock to hit six so she had a reason to get out of the lab and head into the command center. Maggie would meet her and Kara for dinner, and Alex was excited to check out the place her wife had recommended.

She probably shouldn't be – if her past picks were any indication, Maggie usually went for the more environmental, vegan, green places that had Kara's eyebrows practically meeting her hairline as she read from the menu, muttering words in Kryptonian that Alex knew were probably cursing the food on Earth.

But it was the last moment of peace and quiet for the three of them. Because tomorrow, President Marsdin would be returning to National City to attend L-Corp's annual fundraiser gala. And that meant all hands on deck, especially for Maggie and Kara.

Finally, the beep of her watch made her jump up and abandon her lab work, practically running out the door.

"Alex." J'onn acknowledged when he saw her run into the command center.

"Hey. Have you seen-…" Alex was cut off by the  _whoosh_  of Kara landing next to her in Supergirl uniform. Probably just returning from a patrol she'd been on, and now wrapping her arms around her. "Hi! You ready?"

"Damn, Danvers."

Alex and Kara spun around at the words, and saw Maggie walk into the room. Badge on her belt, gun in her holster and a smirk plastered on her face.

Alex glanced down, and now realized what she'd been referring to – she was still wearing her lab coat.

" _Oh_ …" She took it off quickly, revealing a casual outfit. Because of the lab work, she hadn't been in tactical gear all day. She draped the coat over Winn's chair quickly, smiled at him to dismiss his reply, and moved forward to greet her wife with a kiss.

"So, where is it! I could fly us over, or-…" Kara beamed. But Alex saw Maggie's eyes widen at the thought of flying with her, and stepped in quickly. "I'm sure Maggie has a car. Right, babe?"

" _Right_!" Maggie said, a little too quickly. "Yes. My car. On the ground."

"Oh, okay!" Kara followed the detective, who had spun on her heels and was walking to the exit. Alex jogged to catch up with her, and saw her relieved sigh.

"I owe you one."

Alex smirked and wrapped an arm around her waist.

It wasn't until they heard a strangled cry behind them, that the both of them turned around.

Kara was bent over, both hands clutching her temples, and grunting pathetically. It looked like she was having a horrible headache. Alex rushed forward immediately and reached for her. "Hey… Kara, are you okay? Can you hear me?  _Kara_ …?"

Maggie ran back to the command center for help, but then saw to her horror that Winn was already holding on to J'onn, who seemed to be in a similar position.

_Something was targeting them._

"Winn! Enable the magnetic field!  _Do something_!" Alex yelled from by the door. Maggie took J'onn over from the man, as he nodded quickly and ran a hand through his spiky hair, moving to his computer screen.

But just as suddenly as it had appeared, it seemed to be over again. J'onn and Kara gasped in unison as they lurched up. Whatever had gripped them was gone. For now.

"Hey, are you okay?!" Alex asked, her eyes wide with worry as she tried to search her sister's face for any sign of discomfort. Kara looked up. "The  _President_ …"

"What about her?"

"They're planning something." J'onn said.

Alex helped Kara up as they regrouped back near Winn's desk.

"It was some sort of telepathic frequency. A message." He continued.

"Well, what did it say?!" Maggie crossed her arms with a frown.

Kara cleared her throat. "That the President's landing in National City will be marked by decapitation, right in front of her people'."

"Decapitation…" Alex frowned.

"They're going to kill her?"

Nobody replied to the rhetorical question, but everybody knew the answer.

"What's the plan?" Maggie clenched her jaw. "She's landing at the airfield at eleven in the morning tomorrow."

"They sent the message so that only aliens could hear it. That means they wanted us to pick up on it. So they're probably aliens too."

"But why would they warn us? Why not just grab the element of surprise?" Alex shook her head. It sounded too easy.

"Some bad guys just want to see their ego stroked. We don't know if it's a credible threat." Maggie interjected.

"Credible or not, we're taking precautions." J'onn turned to Alex. "I want you on a plane to Washington right now. I'll inform the President of your arrival. You're travelling with her as Secret Service tomorrow, and keeping us updated."

"Yes sir." Alex nodded.

"We need to be subtle and not raise any concerns with the civilians, but we are  _not_  letting the President get attacked here again."

A shake of heads went around the group, and then everybody scattered. Alex ran off immediately before anybody could say a word. Winn turned his chair to face his monitors once again, and J'onn ran to his office, probably to talk to the President on a secure line.

Leaving Kara and Maggie in the center of the room, leaning over the table. Stunned.

"Is that all they said? 'Decapitation, right in front of her people'?" Maggie asked.

Kara nodded meekly. "I-I think so, yeah. It was just that one sentence."

"Was it male? Female? Any accents, anything familiar you picked up on?"

Kara winced as she obviously tried to remember, but shook her head. "I don't know. It happened so quickly… Maybe J'onn knows."

"Yeah. It's okay, Kara." Maggie added quickly when she saw that the blonde still had a scowl on her face. "The President is going to be fine."

Maggie continued rubbing Kara's back, until she saw Alex appear again, holding what looked like a duffel bag.

"Kara, I need you to fly me home so I can pick up some clothes." Alex said, putting the bag down on the table. It looked like it was zipped haphazardly – Maggie could still see the barrel of a gun sticking out, and something red glowing underneath it.

Both Danvers sisters ran to the balcony, before Alex changed her mind and spun around to face her. "Mags, I'm sorry, I-…"

"Go!" Maggie said with a shake of her head.

Alex nodded and reached for Kara, as the both of them launched up into the sky.

Maggie closed her eyes, trying to think. Flying to DC meant that Alex would arrive around midnight. She shot Alex's phone a quick text to call her when she landed, before heading back to Winn.

"What can I do?"

The technician looked up and cleared his throat nervously. "J'onn said to keep it quiet so we can't exactly use the NCPD resources any more than what was already scheduled.  _But_ …" He spun his chair to face her. "… According to the schedule, the President is supposed to be greeted by the mayor at the airfield tomorrow, and they're scheduled to have lunch…"

Maggie nodded, realizing what Winn was on to. "I'll go talk to him."

"Keep your phone near, I'll call if we have any updates on President Marsdin."

"Got it!" Maggie yelled over her shoulder, before she ran out of the command center and into the elevator.

* * *

Though it wasn't a pleasant conversation, the mayor at least seemed intent on offering anything he could to help.

Maggie explained the plan that was currently in place – J'onn shapeshifting into the mayor at the airfield just to be safe, and switching out as soon as they stepped into a car – and he agreed to it reluctantly.

The detective thanked him for his cooperation and after telling him explicitly that he wasn't to talk to anybody about the threat, was escorted out of his office.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket as soon as she stepped outside, and she reached for it.

_Incoming call – Alex Danvers_

She frowned – Alex couldn't possibly have landed already. But she answered the call anyway. "Hey?"

" _Hey_." Came the filtered reply.

"How are you calling me? Did you take a private jet?"

" _No, I'm flying coach. Still in the air, three more hours to go. But there's wi-fi here, so I wanted to talk._ "

Maggie smiled immediately as she put her phone on speaker and entered her car.

" _Any updates_?"

"I just talked to the mayor, he guaranteed to keep it quiet, but we have to switch him out at the tarmac. Haven't heard anything from J'onn or the President."

" _I have. Instructions are 'business as usual'. Only the President and her staff know._ "

"You know, I'm having a really weird sense of déja-vu right now." Maggie smirked as she maneuvered out of her parking spot and started driving back to their shared apartment.

" _The president-getting-attacked thing? Where we met? Oh yeah._ "

"You know, it  _was_  my jurisdiction, right? That was a clear PD case."

" _Bite me._ "

Maggie laughed, before growing serious again. "It sucks that we didn't get to say goodbye properly."

" _We should reschedule the reservation – I'm really sorry we missed it._ "

"Don't worry about it, Danvers. It was just guac and tofu, anyway. Kara would have hated it."

" _It's okay. I'll be back at eleven, tomorrow. At the airfield. You'll be there, right?_ "

"Of course. Seeing you in all black, standing next to the president looking all badass…Wouldn't miss it for the world."

" _I love you._ "

Maggie smiled. "I love you too. Text me when you get off the plane, I won't be able to sleep until you do. And say hi to Capitol Hill for me."

" _I will. See you tomorrow, babe._ "

* * *

"Alright, guys. Role call." Winn said, cracking his knuckles and glancing up at the plethora of camera feeds in front of him, on a monitor wall in his van.

" _In position_.  _Nothing odd so far._ " Kara was the first one to speak, flying overhead to keep an eye on the crowd from above. She was the only one that couldn't be incognito – the people had to know that Supergirl was there.

" _Crowd seems excited._ " Maggie's voice was second, from her spot near the crush barriers, to keep the huge mass of people contained. Hundreds of people had come down to catch a glimpse of the President, and though they seemed to behave, the sheer amount of heads made Maggie nervous.

Any one of them could have bad intentions.

" _The mayor is waiting in the car, I'm coming out now._ " J'onn announced. The rest of the team saw the doors to one of the black cars on the tarmac open, as a gray-haired man stepped out, waving politely at the crowd.

" _Is Alex in range yet?"_  Kara asked. " _I can hear the jet approaching, they shouldn't be more than ten minutes out._ "

" _Six, according to the pilot._ " Alex's voice flooded the intercom. " _When the airstair drops, I'm coming out first. The President will stay behind me until everyone greenlights, do you copy?_ "

A series of 'copy's went around the coms, before Winn took a deep breath. "Alright. Showtime."

Under loud cheers from the crowd, Air Force One landed a few minutes later, and taxied to the carpet. As the engines died down, the entire team seemed on high alert, looking around.

" _I don't see anything_." Kara grunted.

But Maggie frowned, as she noticed somebody in the crowd. Her gut feeling told her something was wrong, as the man was glaring right at her from underneath a dirty blue baseball cap.

She took a step in the man's direction, but he turned around and walked away. This alerted her even more, as she increased her pace. "NCPD…!"

But when she stepped into the crowd and looked around, the man had vanished. She was gaining attention now, as the civilians around her started to notice that something was wrong.

" _Maggie?_ " Alex's voice in the intercom.

The detective turned her head to see her wife standing on top of the airstair, pretending to look through the crowd but eyes focused on hers. " _What's wrong_?"

"I- nothing, I think _._ " Maggie shook her head.

" _Everyone else has greenlit._ " Alex continued, a hand pressed to her earpiece. " _Can you confirm?_ "

One last glance into the crowd, as Maggie sighed. "Yes. Proceed. All clear."

Alex nodded and leaned back. Within seconds, President Marsdin appeared in the doorway of the jet, initiating a loud round of applause from the crowd. She waved charmingly at the group of people as she descended the steps.

Alex lead the way down, stopping in front of J'onn – in the body of the mayor. They exchanged a small nod, before the President joined them, and reached for his hand.

"Anything yet?" She asked the man. J'onn smiled back to keep up appearances for the cameras. "Not yet. We should move to the car and get out of the open."

The President nodded, as she allowed him to lead the way, glancing sideways at the agent by her side. "Thank you for the protection, Agent Danvers."

"Of course, ma'am." Alex responded, blending in with the other Secret Service members effortlessly as the group escorted the two politicians to the waiting car convoy.

J'onn held the door open for the President to get into a black car with tinted windows, and she smiled at him as she got inside. J'onn pretended to head inside as well, before shapeshifting back into his Hank Henshaw form, and stepping out of the car.

"We'll rendezvous at the DEO site for a briefing, madam President." J'onn said, before closing the door. He and Alex stepped back as the convoy drove off. Supergirl flew into the direction of the cars, continuing to monitor any dangers around the vehicles.

Alex sighed. "Well, that was easy."

"Yeah, I don't like it." J'onn grunted, before they walked back to the plane. Most of the crowd had dispersed when the President had left, and the NCPD officers on site were trying to remove whoever had stayed. Maggie walked over to them in her oversized windbreaker. "So much for the decapitation as soon as she landed."

"Maybe you were right." Alex said, looking at Maggie. "Not every threat is acted upon."

"We need to head back to the DEO – I'm sure the President has questions." J'onn said.

" _Guys…?_ " Winn's voice filled their earpieces once again. They were only a few feet away from the van he was sitting in, so Alex ran up to the side of the car and yanked the door open.

A few seconds later, Winn appeared. His eyes wide and paler than they'd ever seen him.

"What? What is it?" Alex asked, sensing that something was wrong immediately.

"T-the building…" He stuttered. "It's… It was…"

Realizing that they weren't going to get anything out of him soon, the three agents entered the van and looked at his screens.

"Oh my god…" Maggie gasped.

Alex felt her stomach drop.

A big plume of smoke filled the skyline of National City on the satellite images.

Zoomed in on a building that looked ready to collapse any second.

"It's…"

"According to eyewitnesses, there was an explosion." Winn said, clutching his tablet. "A minute ago."

_Decapitation._

They bombed the DEO.


	2. Chapter 2

"Get me Anderson on the phone! No, I don't  _care_  where he is! I need to talk to him!" J'onn's words barely registered to anyone around him as he shouted into his phone.

Up close, the damage was…  _unimaginable_.

The entire building was destroyed. Parts of it had already collapsed entirely, leaving behind a huge pile of concrete, rubble and glass.

Alex found herself in a phase of anger. Whoever had sent them the message was obviously playing them – threatening the president to get extra security, before destroying their headquarters.

She watched J'onn disconnect his phone and launch into the sky, flying around the parts of the building that were still standing to screen for survivors.

His first assessments hadn't been positive in the slightest.

"I can't hear anybody." He'd whispered as soon as she first arrived on site. "It's silent."

Alex's fists clenched. The president's visit had meant all available DEO agents were working security details. There had to be at least a hundred people inside.

_If none of them made it out…_

"Hey…"

Alex turned around and saw Maggie walking over to her, still in her NCPD windbreaker. Maggie hadn't wasted a second in setting up emergency services, coordinating with her PD colleagues. But now she had her eyes trained on Alex's face. "ESU are arriving. Can you get them the blueprints?"

"The physical copies were inside." Alex frowned. "But the digital ones are backed on a server on another site, maybe Winn can access them."

"Have you heard from Kara?" Maggie asked.

"Last I heard she and Winn were evacuating the President to a DEO safehouse. I hope they're okay… If anybody got word out…"

"Hey, no. Don't think about that. They're fine. Or Winn would have sent out a message already. He's still  _kind_ of smart, remember?"

Alex sighed, and nodded. "I…  _god_ , Maggie, it's…"

"I know." Maggie wrapped her arms around her, but didn't do anything more. They were in public, and more PDA than necessary was out of the question for them.

If anybody saw it and got the wrong idea, that would mean danger for the both of them.

So Alex took a deep breath and let go of her wife. "We need to start an investigation."

"We need to dig for survivors before we can get CSIU on the scene, Alex…"

"Then we'll start without that. Maybe we can find the emitter that sent out the psychic signal that got Kara and J'onn. If we can figure out where they broadcast it from, and who else heard it…"

Alex's cellphone buzzed, and she answered the call immediately. "Winn, talk to me."

" _We need to regroup here. The President is safe, but we can't discuss things over the phone in case they're listening in. How are things… over there?_ "

Alex turned around to glance back at the rubble. "… We're going to start digging soon, but it's not looking good. Maggie and I will come by as soon as we can."

" _Stay safe._ "

It was unlike Winn to be this serious and in control, but maybe the fatalistic situation brought it out in him. Alex disconnected the call and turned back to her wife. "We need to give the President an update, Winn's concerned about someone listening in to our conversation. We can't let anyone know where the President is, just in case this was meant to lure us out."

"This is going to be all over the news in a second." Maggie said, noticing the news vans starting to pile up. "The President isn't the only one that's going to want answers. And they blew up all of the resources the DEO had."

"Not all of them." Alex's gaze hardened. " _We_  are still here. And we're getting to the bottom of this."

Maggie sighed. Two aliens, a tech guy, an agent and a police detective, against the world.

"Let's go, Alex. We have a President to protect."

* * *

"Agent Danvers!" President Marsdin took a step in her direction the second Alex and Maggie stepped into the room. Winn, who had opened the front door, was now walking back to the laptop on the coffee table.

The safehouse they'd picked wasn't much – an actual house in a shady neighborhood downtown. It wasn't the safest place to put the leader of the free world, but at least nobody would bother to look there.

Secret Service had set up a perimeter around the house, to inform them if anything shady was happening in the vicinity, while Kara had been assigned as the President's personal bodyguard.

"Madam President." Alex greeted her with a nod. "This is NCPD detective Maggie Sawyer."

"I recognize you from the airfield earlier." Marsdin nodded, as she shook hands with Maggie.

"So far, we don't have any intel whatsoever. Both Supergirl and Director Henshaw got a telepathic warning that your visit would be marked by decapitation in front of the eyes of the people. So we reacted, thinking that it was announcing an assassination attempt."

"Of course. You couldn't have known, Agent." She shook her head.

"From the looks of it, they used multiple explosive devices…" Maggie started, prompting Alex and Kara to shoot her a confused look.  _How would Maggie know?_

The detective continued. "… Which means that the attack was prepared, and the bombs were installed by somebody that had access to the DEO."

" _Or_  wasn't picked up by our feeds." Winn corrected quickly.

Alex had to agree with him. Any alien species that they hadn't discovered yet could have teleported into the DEO, planted the charges and flitted away in a manner of seconds.

"Everything is still uncertain, ma'am." Alex turned to the President quickly. "We need to get you back on a plane to DC as soon as possible, in case this was just a warning."

"Now, hold on, Agent Danvers." The woman shook her head. "How would it look if I fled away from a tragedy such as this? This is a time where we need to be united, and work together to show them that we are  _not_ afraid."

"Ma'am." Alex tried again. "All of the people under my command were inside that building. My entire strike team, my research team… We don't know what's going on. We don't know what or who they were targeting yet. But I'll be  _damned_  if I let anyone else die tonight. So Madam President – either you stay here in this living room until we know more, or you get back to DC."

The woman stared at Alex with a heaved eyebrow, before plopping down onto the sofa ostentatiously.

Alex noticed the smirk Kara was doing a bad job of hiding.

"If you need  _anything_ , I'll be happy to provide it. Money, resources, agents, you name it. But I'm staying here until we catch these  _horrible_  people."

"Okay." Alex nodded slowly, pinching the bridge of her nose. "They warned us about the airfield. Decapitation… That means that they were cutting off the head of something."

"The President's alien amnesty act?" Winn asked from his spot at the table.

Alex looked up at him, as he shrugged. "You know… The DEO plays a crucial part in the containment of alien threats, maybe that's…?"

The agent nodded slowly. "It's a start."

"There was a man." Maggie spoke up, prompting the entire room to look at her. "At the airfield. He was wearing a baseball cap, standing in the crowd. Something felt off about him."

"How?" Kara asked. But Maggie shrugged. "I don't know… Cop's instinct, I guess. I tried to talk to him but I couldn't find him anywhere, and I didn't want to draw attention."

"What did he look like? Winn, can you search-…"

"-Camera feeds from around the airfield? Already on it." Winn said, his fingers racing over the keyboard.

"I don't know. It was hard to see his face, but the cap was blue. He was wearing a black sweater, I think. It was a man, average height, broad shoulders."

After a few moments of silence, Winn turned the laptop to face them. "Someone was livestreaming, they got you on their phone." The group watched as they saw Maggie on screen, looking at somebody to the side and running into the crowd.

"No, wait, he was…" Maggie frowned, moving closer to the screen. "He was right in the front of the crowd."

"Where?" Alex said, leaning over the laptop as well. Maggie pointed. "It's… He was right next to that woman…"

"Winn, can you try and find a different angle for this timecode?" Alex asked. Winn pressed a few buttons, as letters flowed over the screen, and a different video popped up, this time from somewhere behind Maggie.

Making it clear that there was no man standing next to the woman Maggie was referring to. On screen, the detective was running towards somebody, but there was nobody there.

"Mags…"

Maggie snapped back from the table as if it had burned her, and glanced back at the questioning looks of Kara and the President. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Uh… Yeah, no, it… I must have misjudged something."

"If we  _are_  going with the shapeshifter slash teleporter theory, then that sounds plausible, though." Winn reasoned. "It's possible they were checking out how many people had shown up to their threat."

Alex glanced up to look at her wife. "Maybe that man you saw is the bomber."

* * *

The President had given them clear instructions to find who was behind this, whatever it took, before they struck again.

But the only lead they had was a vague description of a man they weren't even sure had anything to do with it, and a cryptic warning that only aliens could hear.

So Alex and Maggie went back to the source – the DEO site.

When they arrived, the both of them jumped out of the car and flashed their badges.

The looks on their faces made it clear to the officer at the perimeter that they meant business, and he pulled the lint up immediately. Maggie smiled politely at the man, but Alex was already ahead of her, taking big steps towards the tents near the rubble.

The agent pushed the tent flap aside to reveal J'onn, who was coordinating blueprints with some emergency responders. As soon as he saw them, he excused himself and walked over to the pair.

"We're starting a coordinated dig. Kara is still needed with the President, so I called Clark. Alex, you need to take over command when I change into my real form."

"Yes, of course." Alex nodded.

"Hopefully, Clark can give us some good news. If there are heartbeats, that means we still have a chance."

"I'll go talk to the police chief, see if we can get some canines in too." Maggie interjected.

"The press are currently running theories from terrorism to gas leaks. But we're going to need to give a statement soon. The President put us in charge of the investigation, and we can't afford to make mistakes."

J'onn walked away, leaving the women alone. Alex took a deep breath. "Right. In charge."

"We're in it together." Maggie nodded solemnly, as she put a hand on Alex's shoulder. "I'm going to-…"

She cut herself off, a shocked look overtaking her features. Alex noticed the discomfort immediately and frowned. "What?! What is it?"

Maggie ignored her, taking a step to walk past Alex, gazing at the rubble. Alex turned around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. And her wife's behavior was starting to freak her out. "Mags…?"

" _It's the guy_." Maggie whispered, drawing her gun.

Alex shook her head slowly, seeing nothing but smoke and debris. "Babe, there's nobody there."

"What?!" The detective frowned. "No, he's right there! Looking around!"

She took another step in the direction of the ruined building, but Alex reached for her shoulder. "Hey…  _Don't_. It could be a trap."

Maggie halted, but continued to watch the man, as he looked around, moving on top of the debris. If Alex couldn't see him, then at least she was sure that there was something more going on than just hallucination.

Underneath the blue baseball cap she saw a pale face, his eyes flitting around, as if he was looking for something.

"What is he doing?" Alex asked. The man hadn't seemed to notice that Maggie could see him, or at least he didn't care.

"Just… looking." Maggie shook her head. Why would he be searching the rubble? What did he hope to find?

Suddenly, the man leaned down, and reached for something in his pocket, putting it down.

The second Maggie saw a red, glowing light, she ran.

In the man's direction, her gun raised up and shouting. "NCPD! Hands where I can see them!"

" _Maggie_!" Alex yelled behind her, running up with her blindly. But Maggie ignored her, as the man had taken off running, jumping into a crater of debris.

Maggie jumped onto the pile, clambering towards where she'd last seen him.

But Alex only had eyes for the red, glowing light that was emitting from a circular object that she was sure hadn't been there before.

The next second, she realized what was happening.

"MAGGIE!" She yelled, running towards her. "MAGGIE,  _GET BACK_!"

The detective turned around, opening her mouth to respond to Alex's yelling.

The next second, there was nothing but loudness.

Alex felt herself being flung back by an invisible force, landing on her back on a piece of sharp debris.

Her ears rung.

After that, everything went silent.


	3. Chapter 3

Through the ringing of her ears, Alex managed to distinguish the shouting of people. A siren. A helicopter whirring through the sky above her.

She was on her back, feeling oddly numb. Something heavy was stuck in her eyes, and the next second Alex realized that it was blood running down the side of her face.

" _Alex_!"

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of her own name, as she lurched forward. The pain in her back and head was unbearable, but she pushed through it, tilting her head to see J'onn running over to her.

"Alex!" He repeated, falling onto his knees next to her. "Are you okay?!"

"W-what happened…" She could barely understand him over the high-pitched tone in her ears.

"Another explosion…" J'onn said, shaking his head. "I saw you running towards the debris before the bang… Did you see something?"

Alex closed her eyes for a brief second, before wiping the blood on the side of her face away with a shaky hand. "I… I don't…"

"MEDIC!" J'onn shouted over his shoulder, before focusing back on Alex. "Just relax, alright? We're going to have some paramedics check you over."

"I'm…  _no_ , I'm fine." Alex shook her head slowly, but stopped when that made the throbbing worse. "Something was…"

Shouting from the right made the two agents look up. Two emergency workers were running towards the debris, yelling for assistance.

It wasn't until one of them crouched down and reached for what looked like someone's arm, that Alex's blood ran cold.

In a split second, everything came rushing back.

" _Maggie_ …" She whispered, before jumping to her feet. J'onn grabbed her by the shoulders, but Alex fought against him, ignoring the hot pain flashing through her back.

"Alex, stop! Stay down!" J'onn tried, but Alex shoved him away. " _MAGGIE_!"

The Martian turned around to where a group of responders were now converging around the debris about fifty yards away. At the same time, two EMT's were running towards the pair with a stretcher.

"No, I need to see her! J'onn, I  _need_  to…" Alex was bordering hysteria as she kept trying to push past him, but J'onn had an iron grip on her.

"Alex, you need to let them take care of you. You're hurt. I promise…  _look at me_." J'onn interjected when Alex was still trying to see what was happening on the other side. Only when she turned her eyes to meet his, did he nod. "You're shivering. You're in shock, Alex. I will take care of her, and I'll keep you updated."

" _J'onn_ …" Alex whispered, tears streaming down her face. " _Please_ , I can't… I can't lose her…"

"You won't. I can hear her thoughts, she's okay."

Alex's knees buckled upon hearing his words, completely collapsing. J'onn guided her to the paramedics, and when he was sure she was in good hands, he turned back around to look at the rubble.

_It had been a lie_.

He knew that Alex would have never left if she didn't know for sure that Maggie was okay.

But the only thoughts he heard for now were  _emergency medical protocols_ ,  _oxygen masks_ and  _how far until the nearest hospital_?

He took a step in the direction of the men, but it was clear that there was nothing he could do to help.

But when they lifted a body onto the stretcher and carried it towards the perimeter and away from the debris, J'onn ran to help them carry it.

_So much blood._

"You're going to be okay, Maggie." He whispered down to the detective's pale face. There was blood pouring out of a gash in her eyebrow but it didn't look too deep. The oxygen mask they'd placed on her covered most of her face.

It was clear that it was bad. Based on the frenzy the workers were in, and how fast they sprinted to an ambulance to get her to a hospital. Her entire right side was soaked in blood.

J'onn thought for a second that he could have gotten her to a hospital in less than a minute.

But he was needed here. To stay in control of the situation – to figure out what had happened.

Through the window, he could see Alex sitting in a stationary ambulance. Tears were streaming down her face as a paramedic was taking her blood pressure.

He stepped forward, and opened the door. Immediately, Alex's head shot up. "J'onn…"

"They're bringing her to the hospital."

Alex swallowed her tears down and cleared her throat weakly. "Did- Did she… Was she awake…? Did she talk?"

J'onn took a second to formulate a response. "She was unconscious. There was a lot of blood, but we got to her quickly."

"She said that she saw the same man from the airfield again. A guy that looked… suspicious." Alex sniffed. "He was looking for something in the rubble, he must have… placed another bomb."

"Right in front of hundreds of eyes?"

"That's what the message said, right? 'In front of her people'."

J'onn was stunned to silence.

"Sir, we're going to head to National City General." The paramedic addressed him. J'onn nodded quickly, and turned to Alex. "I'll call Kara, and I'll come by as soon as I can."

Alex cast her gaze downward.

J'onn stepped out of the ambulance after that.

"…  _another explosion not even a few hours after the first one, with rescue workers still on site. So far, we have received no word on any further injured or casualties, leaving the balance of this dark day to still be determined._ "

He tried to block out the numerous news reporters covering the event. The flashes and shouting were starting to overwhelm him. He had to stay focused – get intelligence on the bombing.

But first – an unpleasant call to Kara.

He sighed, as his shaky hand reached for the phone in his pocket, watching Alex's ambulance drive off and sending another prayer upward that the both of them would be okay.

* * *

 

Winn often found himself in a position where he had to do things that he didn't necessarily agree with. When J'onn gave him the command to hack into a server, or edit files, it was hard to keep a straight face and perform his duties.

But  _this_.

Since the news cameras were broadcasting live from the site of the rubble, numerous cameras had picked up on the second explosion.

It was his job now to figure out where it came from.

And to ignore the fact that it meant watching Alex and Maggie get flung back over and over again. J'onn had called with little information other than that both women had at least been alive on site, but that Maggie's status was uncertain.

Kara had dropped down onto the couch, staring ahead. As much as she wanted to be with her sister, she knew that she couldn't leave the President alone.

So now it was Winn who was left to take charge and do whatever he could.

On first assessment, it seemed to make sense that there would be another bomb that hadn't gone off when the initial explosion occurred, and was activated when Alex or Maggie walked onto the rubble. Like a landmine.

But on the footage, Maggie seemed to run towards something, raising her gun.

Something in the debris caught his eye.

"Agent Schott…"

Winn looked up to see the President standing in front of him with crossed arms. "An update?"

"Madam President, uh… I'm reviewing the footage to see if anything's significant. And… I think I might have something."

To his surprise, the woman took a seat next to him at the table, and waited for his explanation.

"Well, uh, you see, there…" He pointed at a few pixels on the screen. "When Maggie and Alex are looking, there's nothing there. But then, right before Maggie starts running…" He fast-forwarded a few frames, and the pixels changed.

"… Something appears out of nowhere." President Marsdin frowned, watching as Maggie ran over to it in panic. There was something glowing red, and when she neared it, it started blinking.

"Alex saw." Winn concluded. "She was warning Maggie, that's why she turned around. And then-…" He cut himself off, watching the two fly backwards.

"So, Maggie was right." The woman looked up. "The bomber is invisible. She saw him plant that second charge."

"But why? Maggie's a human, that would mean that Alex would have to see him too. And so would the rest of the world."

"Maybe he wants to be seen by her." The President frowned, before getting up. "Alright. Send out a message to the Secret Service, I want to move."

"What? But Madam President…" Winn's eyes widened – he remembered the orders he'd been given. She was not to leave the safehouse.

"Agent Schott, I appreciate your concern, but I want to know Agent Danvers and Detective Sawyer are okay. And after that, I'm going to visit the bombing site, to pay my respects to the first responders. I can't sit around here and watch more people get hurt. The people are confused and need answers."

Winn clenched his jaw, and sent out a message to the President's detail. Meanwhile, the woman crouched down in front of Kara's near catatonic form on the couch. "Supergirl…? How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Madam President." Kara replied almost mechanically.

"I want to go visit Agent Danvers and Detective Sawyer." The woman repeated. "Can you stay close to me?"

"Of course." The blonde whispered, before getting up from the couch.

As the threesome walked out of the house to head into a black car driven by a Secret Service member, Winn tried not to think about Alex or Maggie, instead focusing on what they  _did_  know.

Which wasn't much.

A bomber that could flit in at any random time. And the only one that could see him was on the verge of death – from what he could see anyway.

Chaos without explanation was a dangerous state.

He allowed the President to get in first, Supergirl vowing to stay close but preferring to fly instead. Before Winn could get in, his cellphone buzzed.

He reached down, looking at the screen. The number was blocked, but something told him that he had to pick up anyway.

"Hello…?"

" _Winn Schott._ " A distorted voice announced. " _Cerberus._ "

"What?" Winn frowned, completely caught off guard by the call.

" _Another attack happens tonight at 8._ "

"Hold on, who are you? Why are you-…" He tried, but the voice cut him off again. " _Good luck_."

After that, the line went dead, leaving Winn to stare at his phone, dumbfounded.

"Agent Schott?" The President's voice appeared from the car. "We need to go!"

Numbly, Winn got in the car. Glancing down at his phone every few seconds.

8 pm. That meant a little over five hours left.

"Everything alright, Agent?"

Winn glanced to the right and smiled nervously. "Yes. Of course, just… The situation." He explained quickly. The woman nodded, and put a hand on his thigh in a comforting gesture.

_He needed a laptop._

Because as much as it creeped him out that they managed to track down his phone…

At least now he had a tangible clue.

_Cerberus._


	4. Chapter 4

"Anything yet?!"

The second Kara had spotted J'onn standing in the waiting room, his clothes stained with blood and dust from the bombsite, she'd run up to him, ignoring the mass of black-suited Secret Service Agents clearing the room.

"Madam President." J'onn greeted the woman first, as she rounded the corner. He put a hand on Kara's shoulder. " _Supergirl_. Agent Danvers will be fine, she has some bruised ribs and a bump on her head, but she's not going to have any lasting damage."

Kara recognized the hint he was giving. The President didn't know Kara's identity, and showing too much concern would give things away that were to be avoided right now.

Winn ran into the room, typing away on his phone. J'onn watched him. A worried frown plastered on his face, as his eyes flit up and down the screen.

"Any word on Detective Sawyer, Director Henshaw?"

J'onn turned his eyes back to the president, and shook his head. "Not yet. Last I heard she was in surgery, but I don't know how long that will take."

Kara dropped down onto one of the chairs, and tried to focus. Heartbeats…

She'd learned to memorize them, to pick up on them, even if she was far away. Just in case something was wrong with her family, so she could do something.

She heard Alex's first. Thumping steadily. She squinted, trying to use her x-ray vision to see through the walls.

A few corridors down, in the ER, she saw her sister's shape sitting up on a bed and holding an icepack to her head while talking to a doctor.

Seeing that Alex was okay made her entire frame sag in relief. But then she tried to pick up on Maggie, try to see where she was,  _how_  she was…

"Supergirl?"

Kara's concentration was broken by Winn's hushed voice, as he ushered her and J'onn over to the side, away from the agents surrounding them.

He stopped in an adjacent corridor, and checked if anybody was around, before he leaned in. "Uh… right before I got in the car on the way here… Somebody called me. A blocked number."

Kara stiffened, while J'onn glanced around again to ensure that nobody had heard.

"Whoever it was, they announced another attack. At 8, tonight. But they also gave me a hint."

"A  _hint_?!" J'onn folded his arms.

"Yeah. ' _Cerberus'_."

"Like the dog with the heads?" Kara frowned.

Winn nodded. "It's Greek mythology. A dog with multiple heads that guarded the gates of the underworld."

"Multiple heads…" Kara repeated.

"The decapitation they were referring to." J'onn finished. "They're saying that the DEO was just the beginning."

It stunned them to silence as the weight of the words set in.

"Excuse me…?" A gray-haired doctor rounded the corner to the corridor. "Am I-…"

"No, please." J'onn shook his head. "Is there any news?"

"Yes." The doctor smiled politely. "Agent Danvers is cleared – there's no risk for further complications, and the scans are looking good."

The three let out a sigh of relief.

"Any word on Detective Sawyer?" Winn's unsure voice was first.

"Well, from what I was told, her right side got penetrated by a piece of debris when the explosion hit, and she lost a lot of blood. They're removing it now. After that, we can assess the internal damage. But she's holding on."

J'onn thanked the man politely, as he turned back to Winn and Kara. "I need to go back to the bombsite if the President wants to make a statement. Kara, you stay here and take care of your sister. Winn – I know it's a lot to ask, but I need you to keep looking. Try and trace the phone call. See why they would hand it to us like that. We have less than five hours before they attack again."

"J'onn…" Kara tried, but the man was already walking away. Winn sighed. "Right. I'm going to go get the laptop. You stay here and take care of Alex and Maggie."

Kara wrapped her arms around Winn briefly, before pulling back. "Stay safe. Go to my apartment, the key is under the doormat. Call me if you have something."

"You too." Winn nodded, before running out of the hospital. The men in black followed suit shortly, as Kara saw the President walking next to J'onn.

"Good luck." The woman whispered to her, touching her shoulder briefly. And Kara watched the group disappear, before taking a deep breath and walking towards the emergency room.

She knocked on the open door to the room she knew Alex was in, to announce her presence. The doctor looked up, and his eyes widened slightly. "Supergirl…?"

The blonde ignored him, as she locked eyes with her sister. Though Alex looked tired and the side of her face was full of dried up blood, she saw the relief in her sister's eyes when she noticed that Kara was there.

"Could we have a moment, please?" Kara asked in a soft voice. The doctor got up and nodded. "I'll arrange the paperwork so you can go home, Agent."

Alex thanked him quietly. As he closed the door behind him, she looked at Kara once more, panic now covering her features. " _Maggie_ … Kara do you-…"

"She's in surgery. Something about debris puncturing her side, but they don't know how serious it is yet."

Alex heaved a shaky breath. " _God_ , I can't… oh god…"

"Alex, listen to me." Kara lifted Alex's head so that she was looking at her. "She's going to be fine, the doctor said so. She's a fighter."

"I need her to be… to be  _okay_ …" Alex's voice broke on the last word, but Kara felt her tense up completely to not let it show.

"We have a lead." Kara said quickly, to distract her. "They called Winn, they announced that they were going to attack again tonight."

" _Tonight_?" Alex's eyes widened. "Where?"

"We don't know yet. But they searched contact with us. Winn is investigating it."

Alex nodded, and moved off the table, swaying only slightly when standing on her two feet. Kara put a hand on her waist reflexively. "Easy, easy…"

"I'm fine, Kar. We need to get back to work."

"Okay, but-…"

"I'll give the doctor my phone number, and tell him to call me when they know more. But I can't…  _help_  if I'm sitting here worrying."

As much as she knew Alex was right, it hurt to leave Maggie behind like this.

And she didn't want to think about what would happen if something were to go wrong and Alex wouldn't be there…

"Let's go." She finally said. "My apartment. You can take a shower, and we're going to catch this guy."

As the pair moved down to the waiting room area, heading to the reception, Alex smiled politely at the receptionist, and started to fill out the paperwork for her discharge.

"Could you turn that up, please?" Kara said, prompting Alex to follow her sister's gaze, which was locked onto the television screen in the corner of the room. The nurse behind the desk turned up the volume.

"… _no announcement was made of the her visit to the disaster site beforehand, so this comes as a surprise, but we expect that President Marsdin will make a speech and thank the rescue workers for all their hard work…_ "

The sisters watched as the camera picked up on J'onn and the President, stepping out of an armored vehicle.

Kara kept on staring at the live broadcast, while Alex finished up and handed the forms back quickly. With a rushed 'thank you', both sisters walked out. As soon as they were out the door, Kara reached for Alex and launched herself up into the sky, soaring through National City's airspace and reaching her own balcony within a few seconds.

To find Winn already working at the table, laptop open and tie loosened to give him an overall disheveled appearance.

"Alex…" He said, looking up the second they landed in the living room. Kara closed the window behind them.

"Do you have anything?" Alex asked, ignoring the obvious question in his voice.

The man pressed his lips together. "I might have  _something_. But…" He sighed, starting over. "I was thinking – mythology. Cerberus is usually portrayed as having three heads. So maybe… if the DEO was one of them, we need to find the others?"

"There are other DEO sites outside of National City." Kara spoke up. "There's one in Metropolis too."

Winn's fingers raced over the keyboard as he looked it up. "There are five DEO headquarters in the US, not to mention black sites. So – no three."

"What if we're looking at it wrong?" Alex spoke up, leaning forward on the table. The dried blood on the side of her face now illuminated by the lamp above her. "The twelve labors of Hercules – the last one was to capture Cerberus and bring him to the mortal world. It was described as an impossible task - maybe they bombed the DEO because they wanted to release a prisoner? To bring him back to their 'underworld'?"

Her explanation apparently gave Winn an idea, because his eyes lit up as he started typing again furiously. After a few minutes, he spoke up. "I… think I have something."

Both Alex and Kara looked up.

"I found an operation from a few months back called Cerberus. It was a covert op, and any file that has any intel about it is blacked out completely."

"I have the highest DEO clearance level, I can-…" Alex started, but Winn cut her off with a shake of his head. "That won't work, because wasn't a DEO operation."

"Then what was it?" Kara frowned.

Winn looked up. "NCPD Science division."

Alex and Kara shared a look, the both of them realizing what that meant. The agent quickly excused herself to go clean up and change.

"Is she alright?"

Kara turned to Winn and shook her head. "She… had to leave Maggie."

Winn nodded. Alex had to be 'Agent Danvers' now, as horrible as it was.

The technician's eyes darted to Kara's TV, which had been showing the broadcast of the bombsite. But now, the President was apparently in the middle of a speech. He reached for the remote and turned the volume up once more, as Kara turned to follow.

"…  _thank the brave people that are out here, working hard. We don't have the answers yet, but we do know that this was a vile and despicable act of terror, that we will not let ourselves be defined by._   _The American people must come together and stand united to face this threat, and prove to these maleficent terrorists that we are not scared, and we will not give in to them_."

Kara couldn't help but nod at the words.

The President paused briefly, before continuing. " _An investigation has been opened, and I consider it my duty to inform the American people as soon as we have answers to give. Until then, we are-…_ "

The woman cut herself off because of shouting to her right, and turned her head to look at something off-camera.

Kara took a step in the direction of the window, ready to launch at the next sign of danger.

But when the President turned back to the cameras, she just cleared her throat. " _God bless America_."

After that, the camera followed her as she ran to where a few rescue workers were surrounding the debris, shouting.

As far as they were away from the reporter, the shouts were still clearly audible through the microphones.

Kara's heart stopped.

" _We have a survivor_!"


	5. Chapter 5

For the second time in less than an hour, Alex Danvers found herself in National City General Hospital. Only this time she was standing in the waiting room, on the phone with J'onn.

"No updates yet." Alex said with a sigh. "I don't even know if he's still alive."

He had changed everything.

The survivor in the rubble was identified as Tristan Barclay, a DEO field operative. He had only been recruited a few months back, and was low on the command chain. Still, it was a miracle that the man had survived the blast.

And now, they just had to hope that he'd survive the surgery as well.

Alex had been assigned at the hospital, to keep everyone up to date with his status, as well as Maggie's.

The fact that she hadn't heard any updates ever since she arrived made her nauseous.

Her mind wandered off to the covert op Winn had told them about. She was convinced that it was the key to solving the puzzle of the bombing.

Alex wasn't an idiot. If Maggie was the only person that could see the guy that had something to do with it, and her division covered up a mission she was involved in, then…

Then she needed Maggie to talk. To be alive, and laugh and breathe, and  _talk_.

Her phone buzzed. She looked down to see a text from Winn.

_Still no luck on decrypting file._

"Agent Danvers?"

Alex's head snapped back up when a doctor walked over to her and nodded politely. "I have an update on your wife."

He looked down at the folder he was carrying. "She's out of surgery, and according to the staff everything went well. They located another bleeding, but it's contained, and she shouldn't have any permanent damage."

Alex had to grip the counter to stay upright, as she felt her head spin with relief.  _She was okay._

"She's out of the woods, but we want to keep her here for 24 hours to monitor her. She suffered a mild concussion, and we don't have the results of the CT scan back yet."

"Can I see her?"

The doctor hesitated. "She's still recovering, and she's not awake yet."

Alex reached for her badge. "I know that this may seem like an excuse to throw my weight around, but it  _is_  a matter of national security that I talk to her as soon as possible, sir."

The man nodded slowly. "The bombing. Yes, okay. I'll escort you to her room."

"Thank you." Alex said, as he led the way down the corridor. "Any word on Agent Barclay's condition?"

"I don't know about that. But I'll check on that for you."

The rest of the walk was spent in silence.

The doctor stopped at a door and pointed towards it. "Right through there. I'll ask the staff to give you some privacy, but there's only so much I can do."

After thanking the man once again, Alex pushed the door open, and smiled weakly at the sight in front of her.

" _Hey, baby_ …"

* * *

 

After the miracle of finding Tristan Barclay alive underneath the rubble, the hopes at the bombsite had remained high that other survivors would follow soon.

But the longer J'onn was on site, the bigger he saw the 'confirmed deceased' list become.

The President had already given instructions on the official story: the building was an FBI headquarters that was attacked by unknown terrorists.

The public couldn't know about the existence of the DEO, or what it meant that it was now in ruins.

He'd sent Alex back to the hospital – that was the best place for her to be right now. Close to Maggie, close to Barclay,  _and_  close to answers.

He and Kara could manage the bombsite, and help out here. He had insisted that if the President wanted to stay in National City, she at least had to relocate back to the safehouse.

The clock was ticking – and it wouldn't be long until the clock struck 8.

They needed answers by then.

Because of Maggie's unsure fate, J'onn had decided to bet on another horse. Which was arriving now, stepping out of his car and pulling large eyes at the devastation in front of him.

J'onn walked towards him immediately and reached out his hand. "Lieutenant Greene."

Jeff Greene, police Lieutenant and head of the Science Division. A tough, hardened man with a passion for justice delivered to perps. J'onn admired the man's perseverance, and assumed that he wasn't going to get much out of him.

But he had to try.

"Director Henshaw." The man shook his hand, glancing back at the rubble. "I've been watching the news all day… any leads? My division is available to assist you, if you need manpower or resources."

"I appreciate that, Jeff." J'onn nodded. "Have you heard about…"

"Sawyer?" Greene sighed. "I'm the last to know every time anything happens to that woman. Haven't been able to reach her… you know more?"

"Alex is in the hospital with her. That's all I know."

Greene nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, offer stands. Whatever you need to catch the  _assholes_  that did this."

"Actually, there  _is_  something you can help with."

Greene waited for him to elaborate, but J'onn pulled him away from passing rescue workers, to a more private area behind an emergency tent.

"I need intel on a mission the Science Division did a few months ago. We believe it may have a connection to the bombing."

"Okay…"

"The operation's name was Cerberus."

J'onn thought he saw a flash of recognition, and…  _fear_  pass on Greene's face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had happened. "That doesn't sound familiar."

"Are you sure? We couldn't access the mission files because they were encrypted and classified, but I  _do_  believe it's imperative that we know what it entailed, to find-…"

"Henshaw." Greene interrupted him with a shake of his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. There's no such mission, or I would know about it."

J'onn nodded slowly.

_Either Greene was a damn good liar, or something went above his head._

"Okay. It was probably just a loose end, then. I apologize." J'onn stepped back. "I should get back to helping."

He excused himself quickly, and Greene watched him go, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cellphone.

He dialed a number and raised the phone to his ear.

"It's me. We have a problem. Meet me at our spot, thirty minutes."

* * *

 

_Barclay still in surgery, but he sounds stable. Maggie is recovering._

Alex fired off the text to J'onn, Winn and Kara, before lowering her phone once more, taking a deep breath and wincing as her sore ribs protested.

Though compared to her wife, Alex figured she didn't have much to complain about.

Hopefully, Barclay remembered something about the bombing, though it was a long shot. It's likely he was just in the right place at the right time to survive.

She hadn't talked to him all that much during his time at the DEO. He was a junior agent, only recruited a few months prior.

Which in itself wasn't all that interesting. But given the fact that there were mysterious phone calls and warning messages, anything was possible.

A weak moan filled the room, and Alex abandoned all train of thought to jump up from her chair and lean forward. "Hey…"

The moan turned into a groan of pain, as Maggie's pale face distorted with pain before her eyes opened slowly. She blinked a few times, as her eyes flitted to Alex's watery smile.

" _Al_ …" She grunted weakly. "You okay?"

"Wh-  _yes_. I'm okay, babe." Alex sniffed as she reached for Maggie's hand and kissed the back of it weakly. "And you're going to be okay too."

"I got blown up." Maggie frowned, as she apparently started to remember the events at the DEO site.

Alex nodded slowly. "You saw the guy again, and you probably activated a UXO that hadn't gone off during the blast."

Maggie stayed silent for a while, trying to process the situation. Alex squeezed her hand softly, and reached her other hand out to caress Maggie's cheek. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'm not going anywhere." The detective smiled. "Love you."

"I love you too, Mags." Alex leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Maggie's lips. Maggie reached her left arm out to reach for Alex's face too.

When they pulled back, Alex bit her lip. She couldn't afford to wait any longer.

"Mags, I… I need to talk to you about something."

Maggie frowned at her serious tone. "Did something happen…? Another attack?"

"No." Alex shook her head. "Not yet. But… they announced another one. Mags- Winn found a lead. But only you can help us figure it out."

Maggie nodded silently.

"We found a file in the NCPD database. There was a tip to go look for it, but it's classified, and it looks like a Science Division op."

"Okay…"

Alex squeezed her hand. "The name of the operation was Cerberus."

Maggie shot upright so quickly that Alex didn't have a chance to react. But she jumped up when Maggie emitted a loud cry of pain, clutching her side.

" _Mags_!" She yelled, already reaching for her shoulders to ease her back down. But Maggie ignored her, a hand reaching out to grab Alex's collar and pull her close. Through gritted teeth, she managed to growl. " _Where_  did you hear that name?!"

"It was- in a mission file, but it was all blacked out! Winn hacked into the database… Mags,  _what_  the hell is going on? What happened on that mission?!"

Maggie glanced down. A spot of blood was beginning to form on the hospital gown she was wearing – her stitches had ripped with her sudden movement. Alex's eyes widened as she noticed it too.

She turned to run outside and get assistance, but Maggie yanked at her arm, pulling her back. "Stay here."

"Mags, you're  _bleeding_ , your stitches-…" Alex wanted to continue, but Maggie cut her off. "Alex. I'm serious. You can  _not_  tell anyone about Cerberus."

"Tell them  _what_?!" Alex shot back. "We don't know anything! Someone called Winn and tipped us off about the op, we're trying to see what it has to do with the bombing!"

Maggie glanced down, nodding slowly. " _Of course_ …"

"Of course  _what_!" Alex was losing her patience. Between the blood stain on Maggie's side and the vague comments, she needed answers fast.

Maggie looked back at her. "There's a reason that op was covered up. Nobody can touch it, except for the people that were in on it."

"There are over a hundred people dead because of those bombers, Maggie." Alex swallowed thickly. "And they announced another attack within four hours. I need to know what you know,  _now_. Before they kill more innocent people."

Maggie looked away once more, before taking a deep breath. "Shut the door."

Alex nodded and complied, checking if anybody was around in the corridor, before taking off her jacket and pressing it to Maggie's side. It didn't look like too much blood, but it was enough to need help the second she was finished talking.

" _Cerberus_ …" Maggie grunted. "… Was a covert op we did a few months back. A raid of an old factory building just outside the city."

Alex nodded, keeping her distance so that her wife could tell the story.

"We'd gathered intelligence on a man that lived in the building. We assumed he was a squatter, but… we started picking up on communication. He was talking to someone… or  _something_  about a portal. A doorway to 'The Room', as he called it."

"The room…" Alex repeated slowly.

"We monitored him closely, and eventually we figured out that he had a portal in that factory building, that he was guarding."

" _Cerberus_." Alex nodded.

"Yeah. We prepared to raid the building and deactivate the portal, so that whatever things were on the other side would stay there, instead of come to National City. There were only four people involved – me and three other officers. But… the entire op went south. The guy was tipped off apparently, and he was nowhere in sight. But when we found the portal and moved to deactivate it, whoever was on the other side started firing through. Two of our guys were shot down, but I saw the man that had been guarding it, on the other side. So… I jumped."

"You jumped  _into the portal_?!" Alex's eyes widened, ready to start raging at how insanely  _careless_ that was. But Maggie only nodded. "I had to. They'd pulled the last guy into the portal, and I jumped to save him. When I got to the other side, everything happened really fast. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground, back in the factory."

Alex tried to understand. From what she heard, it was a raid that had indeed gone south, but… the DEO had plenty of missions that ended in failure.

No need to classify and keep it a complete secret.

Maggie saw the confusion written on her face, and nodded. "I know. It doesn't make any sense. I blacked out, and when I woke up, Greene was there. He told me that I was never allowed to talk about the mission again, and that he would kill me if I ran my mouth about it."

"But  _why_?!"

Maggie looked down, and took a deep breath. "I don't know. They didn't tell me. All I know is that Greene threatened to wipe my memory. They threatened to hurt  _you_. If I didn't swear to them that I would never tell a soul."

"Jesus…" Alex whispered.

"That's all I know, Alex, I swear! I don't know what happened, or what I was supposed to see…"

"It's okay, it's okay." Alex shushed her gently, as she wrapped her arms around her as best as she could. She felt Maggie's arms reach around her waist too. They stayed like that for a few seconds, until Alex pulled back. "I'm going to get a doctor, okay?"

Maggie nodded meekly, and watched Alex run out of the room.

As soon as Alex was out of sight, she glanced down at her hand, the one she'd used to take Alex's phone out of her pocket without her noticing during the hug. She dialed a number quickly, and raised the phone to her ear.

"Greene, it's Sawyer. The DEO knows about Cerberus."


	6. Chapter 6

"She panicked when she came to, and she tore some of her stitches. There was a lot of blood, I didn't notice at first…" Alex jumbled the explanation as she walked alongside the nurse, back to Maggie's room.

But when she pushed the door open, she froze in place at the sight in front of her.

An empty bed. And her wife nowhere in sight.

The sheets stained with blood from the mess Maggie had made.

"Mags…?" Alex frowned, knocking on the adjacent bathroom door, and pushing it open when she received no response.

Finding it deserted too.

The nurse behind her frowned as she watched Alex's frantic movements. The agent turned to her. "Could somebody have taken her for tests? Scans?!"

"In this state, right after surgery, they would have just taken her on the bed." The nurse responded, already reaching for her pager.

Alex ran a hand through her hair and tried her best not to panic. "Okay… so… We need to check the floor. She should be somewhere around here, she can only be two minutes away."

_If somebody took her…_

That man that only Maggie could see… Could he have walked into the hospital and kidnapped her?

_Oh god._

Alex looked away, trying to keep a straight face. She had to be strong.

The nurse ran off with the pager, no doubt alerting security to the missing patient.

Alex felt like she couldn't breathe.

Her hand reached for her phone in her pocket, but she found that it had vanished. "What the…"

She turned, and ran towards the nearest person – a woman, probably visiting a patient. "Ma'am! Agent Danvers, FBI. I need to make a phone call, can I use yours?"

The woman's eyes widened at the sight of her badge, but she handed over her phone anyway. Alex typed in Kara's number quickly, and pressed the phone to her ear, praying that her sister would answer.

A click. " _This is Kara Danvers, I can't come to the phone right now, but_ …"

Alex winced at the voicemail message, but waited for the  _beep_  nonetheless. "Kara, it's Alex. Maggie is gone, I think someone took her. I lost my phone, but I'm coming back. We need to find her before…" She trailed off with a sigh, not wanting to shock the woman in front of her any further. "Just… wait for me."

She disconnected the call and gave the phone back to the woman, and took a few aimless steps in the direction of the exit, before the full gravity of the situation finally got to her.

* * *

 

Breathing heavily, Maggie stumbled into a supply closet. She looked down at the text she'd received one more time.

_Wilson park. 15 minutes._

As she leaned against the door, she winced. Alex's jacket had done little to stop the bleeding. And dressed in a bloody hospital gown, she knew she wouldn't stand a chance of reaching her destination without anybody asking questions.

"Shit…" She whispered to herself.

She looked around, and saw a few cardboard boxes stacked on the shelves around her. She reached for them, and pulled one open. To her relief, it contained boxes of gauze. Immediately, she yanked open a few packets, and stuffed a few pads against the wound in her side, biting down on her hand to prevent herself from crying out.

When she was satisfied, she reached for the other boxes.

After a few fruitless attempts, she finally found a box filled with black scrubs. She pulled out a package, and tore off the hospital gown, pulling on the pants and top. It wasn't ideal, but at least she could walk out without anybody asking questions.

She threw the bloody gown behind the shelf, and closed the door behind her.

Freezing immediately at the sight of Alex handing a random woman back her phone, and looking completely panicked and distraught.

It broke Maggie's heart to see Alex like this – no doubt was the worry directed at her.

But she couldn't dwell on it. She needed to make the rendezvous with Greene.

_It was the only way to stop the attack._

Without looking back, she walked in the opposite direction, to the nearest emergency exit.

* * *

 

" _Winn_!"

The technician looked up to see Kara stumble into her apartment in her haste to get to him. He jumped up at the serious look on her face. "What?! What happened?!"

"Alex called me. Maggie is missing."

Winn paled. "W-what? Missing? But she was…"

"Alex says somebody kidnapped her. Maybe the people that had something to do with the bombing. She's on her way over. Winn, we  _need_  to know what that Cerberus operation was!"

"I've been trying to crack the encryption for the past half hour, but… nothing." Winn ran a hand through his hair. "And it's likely they installed a tripwire, so they'd be notified if anybody was digging too deep. I can't risk getting caught, or they'll be one step ahead of us."

They both fell into silence, as Kara glanced at the television. "It's a mess. The people don't know what's happening, they're scared."

"So am I." Winn chuckled dryly.

A loud knocking on the door. Kara squinted, but then speeded towards the door to pull it open.

Revealing a red-eyed Alex, who stepped into the apartment. "We need to find who took her,  _now_."

"Alex, slow down. Tell us what happened."

"She… woke up. She told me about Cerberus, and… I went to get a doctor. When I came back, she was gone. It has to be that guy that she saw at the bombsite. Maybe he came to finish the job, or… I- I  _don't know_." Alex shook her head.

"Wait – she told you about Cerberus?" Kara frowned.

"Yeah, it was a covert op she was leading. A guy that was guarding a portal in an old factory building. The rest of her squad got killed, she doesn't know why they covered it up."

"When was this?" Winn asked, moving to the computer.

Alex took a step in his direction. "A few months ago."

The technician nodded. "I'll cross-reference old factory buildings around town with a running algorithm on traces of portal technology, but it's a stab in the dark – I don't know if it'll get us a location."

"If it has something to do with it, then it's the best guess for finding Maggie." Alex nodded decisively. "Do it."

She turned back, seeing her sister staring at the television – showing a repeat of the President's speech at the bombsite. "I need to go back. If she's a target, then we can't leave her alone. Call me if you know anything, I'll try to look for Maggie as much as possible."

After that, she took off, jumping from her balcony and launching herself into the sky.

Alex reached down into her pocket, but grunted as she remembered what she'd realized at the hospital. "Fuck… Winn, can you track my phone? I think I lost it at the hospital."

"Coming right up…" A few strokes on the keyboard, and Winn frowned. "Uh…"

"What?" Alex took a step in his direction, as he rotated the laptop so she could watch the screen.

A map of National City, zooming in. But to her surprise, it wasn't tracking the hospital.

"Wilson Park…" Winn frowned. "That's like four blocks from National City Gen…?"

Before Winn could say anything else, Alex was already out the door.

* * *

 

Maggie tried not to look down at her shaking hands as she sat down onto the bench, instead glancing around at the people in the park. Playing soccer with kids, picknicking, jogging…

Without a word, a man in a long black coat holding a briefcase took a seat next to her.

She didn't need to see his face to know that it was Greene.

"You alright?" Were the first words that came out of his mouth. Maggie chuckled weakly. "A few more holes than I would like."

"Henshaw asked about Cerberus."

"Yeah, Alex did too."

"I hope you didn't say anything." Greene growled. "You know the consequences."

"You know that they're behind the bombing. The DEO deserves to know."

"If the DEO knows about Cerberus, all that we worked for is ruined." Greene shook his head. "You're  _not_  telling them anything."

"Is it really worth it?!" Maggie shot back. "People  _died_ , Jeff.  _Many_. People I knew."

"Boo  _fucking_  hoo." He grunted. "You listen to me. You keep on feeding Alex that you don't remember what happened. I'm working on it, alright? But I can't have Henshaw breathing down my neck while I do it."

"I saw one of them at the airfield. And again at the bombsite."

Greene nodded. "I need you to keep me updated on their investigation. Don't help them any more than you already have, and if you see the guy again – don't  _interfere_. That almost got you killed."

A beat of silence. "Alex thinks they kidnapped me. I left the phone on, she'll be here soon."

"We'll play into it. Tell her that you don't remember anything, that you went to sleep in the hospital and woke up here. I'll make sure the camera feeds are wiped."

Maggie took a shaky breath. Greene noticed. "Sawyer – you know this is for their own good. You said so yourself.  _You_  were the one that wanted to keep it covered up."

"I know."

Greene got up, and walked off into the bushes without another word.

Maggie watched him go, and waited for a few seconds to get up and follow him.

In the bushes, out of sight for passerby's, Greene was waiting. Maggie took off the scrubs, leaving her in her underwear. He clicked open the briefcase in his hands, revealing a single syringe.

He took it out, and stuffed the discarded clothes in. After glancing down briefly to the amateuristic patchjob Maggie had performed on her wound, he yanked the gauze off and tucked it away too.

"Sweet dreams." He grunted, as he plunged the syringe in her neck.

A few seconds later, Maggie's eyes rolled backwards, and he caught her before she could fall and gently lowered her to the ground.

"Good luck." He whispered to her, before stepping out of the bushes.

A small smile appeared on his face as he watched Alex appear on the other side of the park, running in his direction.  _That woman really loved her to death._

He was long gone when she finally reached Maggie, her eyes widening at the state her wife was in.

"Oh  _god_ …"

Alex dropped to her knees immediately, and cupped Maggie's face in her hands. "Hey… Baby, can you hear me? Maggie?!"

She checked her pulse and breathing, and then reached for her phone on the ground.

Clearly, the hospital wasn't safe anymore.

"Kara? I need you,  _now_. Wilson Park- I found her. We need to take her back to your apartment."


	7. Chapter 7

"Two more hours until whoever bombed the DEO performs another attack. We don't know who, we don't know where, we don't know why." Kara summarized, her arms crossed and a frown plastered on her face.

"We have an ally though." Winn supplied. "Someone who obviously knows about their plan, and who is on our side."

"Right." Kara nodded. "But if they know everything, why not just give us the  _entire_  story?"

"Subtlety." Alex replied from her spot on the couch, as she was stitching an unconscious Maggie's wound up again. "… If the bombers are listening in, they might not be able to do anything else."

"But why would they take Maggie?" Winn frowned. "What did she see?"

"The guy." Kara and Alex replied in unison.

The agent continued. "That man at the bombsite – they must have realized that she's able to see him. They probably wanted to take her out."

"Then why not kill her immediately?"

Alex sighed. "Maybe she's supposed to deliver a message, that's the only logical explanation."

A buzzing indicated that Alex's phone on the table had an incoming call. She lowered the needle and thread, and reached for it, raising the phone to her ear. "Danvers."

Kara and Winn watched as she nodded. "Yes… Okay, that's great news. Thank you. I'll come by as soon as I can."

Alex disconnected, and put her phone on the table. "The hospital… Tristan Barclay is out of surgery, and he's going to make a full recovery."

A beat of silence, before Winn cleared his throat awkwardly. "Don't you guys think that it's a little…  _iffy_  that he managed to get out so easily?"

Alex would be lying if she hadn't thought about it more than once, but she tilted her head anyway. "What do you mean?"

"We have no other survivors, and they've been digging for hours. He manages to survive with barely any injuries from what i could tell based on the hospital files that I  _may_  or may not have hacked…"

"We can't get paranoid here." Kara shut him down quickly. "Just the facts, right? As soon as Barclay wakes up, someone needs to go ask him some questions. In the meantime, we just need to-…"

Kara cut herself off by a shifting sound behind them. The three turned to see Maggie moving to sit upright on Kara's couch. Alex ran towards her immediately. "Babe…Don't move around. Lie back down."

"What happened…?" Maggie mumbled weakly, frowning at her surroundings, as Alex pushed her down again.

"I-… Found you in the bushes in Wilson Park, you disappeared from the hospital. I think… someone took you." Her wife's slightly shaky hands moved back to the needle, and continued her stitching.

" _Took_ me…?" Maggie winced as the needle pierced her skin, and glanced up at Kara and Winn.

"Was it the guy you saw? Do you remember anything?" Kara continued, moving to stand closer to the couch.

"I… woke up in the hospital,  _you_  were there…" Maggie said, glancing down at her wife. "And then… it's all a blur. I remember… seeing trees and leaves… But then nothing."

Alex sighed in defeat, as she realized that she wasn't going to get anything out of her.

"The cameras near Wilson Park didn't pick up on anybody, and the security cameras in the hospital apparently had a technical glitch right around the time she disappeared."

"What a coincidence." Kara grunted. "Someone's playing games with us – and we can't let more people die."

"Have you had any luck in tracing the call?" Alex asked, wiping away some blood to continue her stitching. Without any anaesthetic it was a painful process no doubt, but Maggie stayed silent, digging her hands into the cushions underneath her instead.

"No luck. The trace keeps bouncing off all over the place. Whoever it is – they don't want to be found."

"What head is the DEO?" Kara spoke up. "They called the bombing a decapitation. What does the DEO stand for?"

"Alien containment? I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that aliens target the DEO to punish us for killing or hunting down their friends-…" Winn theorized, before a  _ping_  made him glance down at the laptop.

His eyes widened. "Scratch that – Alex, my algorithm found something!"

Alex got up from the couch, gently kissing Maggie's temple before moving in the direction of the table.

"The program I ran on the portal on the Cerberus mission – I think I have an address." Winn looked up. "Corner of Kingswood and 22nd."

Alex turned around, but Kara put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll go – you stay here. It could be dangerous."

"Be careful." Alex whispered. Kara ran to a cupboard, and pulled out a set of earpieces. "They're all matched to the DEO frequency – I don't know if they'll work, but…"

The agent nodded as Kara handed one to her and Winn, and then pushed one in her own ear before launching up into the sky from her window.

Alex walked back to Winn and sighed. "I should go talk to Barclay – see if he knows something."

"Babe…?" Maggie's quiet voice came from the couch.

Alex's frown softened into a weak smile and she walked back to her wife. "Hey… everything okay? Can I get you something?"

"Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, baby, I have to go talk to the surviving agent. Maybe he can tell us how he survived, or what he saw."

"I'll come with you." Maggie said, moving to sit upright. Alex steadied her with two hands on her shoulders, but didn't stop her.

If Maggie was with her, then at least nobody could take her again without her knowing.

_She'd be there_.

"Are you sure you feel okay?" Alex frowned, crouching down to meet Maggie on eye-level. "No dizziness, nausea…?"

"They probably just knocked me out with a sedative." Maggie smiled weakly. "I feel fine, Alex. I won't move around too much, but we need to find these guys."

Alex nodded, helping Maggie up. Winn covered his eyes respectfully at Maggie's underwear, and Alex sped towards Kara's closet to pull out one of Kara's outfits that would be in her wife's size.

Maggie put on the clothes slowly, wincing as the movements made the freshly stitched wound sore all over again. Alex helped her as best as she could, and Winn actually ended up running out of the room.

"We're taking a cab." Alex said, after seeing that Maggie was at least able to walk without too much pain. "… And you're not taking any risks, or straining yourself, do you hear me?"

"Yes, doctor Danvers."

Alex rolled her eyes at the name, but shouted a goodbye to Winn, and walked out of the apartment, Maggie right behind her.

* * *

 

"I'm at the factory." Kara said, as she crash-landed into the central room. It was large and dusty, and apart from the graffiti tags on the walls, it looked like nobody had been there in a long time.

"…  _okay, I'm behind my laptop again – your sister-in-law doesn't understand boundaries._ "

Frowning at Winn's statement, Kara glanced around. "Where would it have come from?"

" _Right, the tracker can only go up to a few yards, so I don't have a specific location, but it looks pretty close to where you're standing right now._ "

"I'm in a large room, but there's no portal anywhere." Kara took a few steps and touched the wall, but found nothing other than hard brick.

" _Well, it's likely that it got deactivated_.  _The footprint only lasted a few seconds, before it disappeared again._ "

Kara squinted and looked around, but even her x-ray vision showed nothing but dust and old machinery. "It looks like nobody has been here for days,  _weeks_ , Winn."

" _Maybe they moved it? Placed it somewhere else? I'll cross-reference the specific signature I found here with the current National City satellite feed, hang on…_ "

Kara nodded along to his explanation, before a noise to the right made her head turn quickly. The room around her was deserted, but the sound had been unmistakable.

Another  _crack_ , this time to her left. It sounded like footsteps, but it echoed through the hall. But there was nobody in sight.

"I know you're in here." Kara hissed through her teeth, as she braced herself for a sudden attack. "Show yourself!"

The heroine spun around over and over again at new sounds, but soon found herself dizzied and unable to locate anything. She dropped to her knees.

" _Kara? You okay?_ "

"Something…  _weird_  is going on. There are people here, but I can't see them."

" _As in 'invisible guys'?"_  Winn's voice cracked through her earpiece. " _Get out of there, there's nothing you can do. Get out before they hurt you_."

Kara didn't like it one bit, but she knew that Winn was right.

Within minutes, she found herself in her own apartment again, running a hand through her hair. "The portal could still be there."

Winn raised a sceptical eyebrow. "I doubt that, my technology is advanced enough to-…"

"Your technology didn't see them at the airport!" Kara shot back. "My X-ray vision didn't pick up on them, but the room could have been  _filled_  with guys! Whoever did this is invisible to us, and we can't do anything about it! Winn, there could be one  _right beside you_  right now!"

Winn's eyes widened as he glanced to the left. Kara huffed. "Something is going on here. Maggie is the key to understanding it, if she's the only one that can see those guys."

"I'll search for any species that we have come across at the DEO that can turn invisible."

Kara dropped down onto her couch, remembering the dizzying feeling of  _knowing_  there was somebody there but being unable to see them.

This entire situation was making her paranoid, and they were nowhere closer to figuring out why those aliens would target the DEO.

_Decapitate_.

… _Alien containment_.

Suddenly, Kara shot back up, her eyes widening. "Winn!"

"What?! What is it!" Winn seemed scared at her sudden outburst, but Kara ignored it. "What you said! Alien containment being the reason they would target the DEO!"

"…Yeah? It was a working theory, but-…"

She cut him off quickly. "What other entity in National City does alien containment?!"

Winn frowned and opened his mouth to respond, before his eyes went wide as saucers. "You don't mean…"

Kara glanced over her shoulder to the skyline of National City. "The NCPD Science Division."

She snapped her head back to Winn. "Maggie's precinct."

"Let's go!" Winn shut the laptop lid forcefully and pulled it into a nearby backpack. "We have a little over an hour until those bombs go off!"

Kara reached for him and pulled him into his arms, earning her a surprised yelp, as she ran to her window and shot back up.

_She prayed she was right._


	8. Chapter 8

"Mister Barclay." Alex announced, after knocking on the ajar door to his hospital room.

As she walked in, Maggie right behind her, they now had their first look up close to the man on the bed. A wound on his forehead was freshly stitched and he had a black eye and a split lip, but otherwise he seemed mostly okay.

"Ma'am." The man moved to sit upright at the sight of her, his eyes widening. Alex raised a hand to get him to stop moving. "Are you okay?"

"Nothing I can't handle, ma'am." He shook his head quickly, his blonde hair matted with red streaks of blood. He didn't look a day over twenty-five.

Maggie moved to stand next to Alex, and the agent noticed the man's eyes flickering between the two of them, and then down to their matching rings.

"Agen-…" Alex cut herself off with a sigh. " _Tristan_. I'm Alex Danvers."

"I know who you are, ma'am. I served the Marsh'ah mission under you."

Alex remembered the operation – standard routine procedure. J'onn had insisted she'd take a fresh set of agents to get to know the DEO field work, and she hadn't complained. It gave her trusted agents a well-deserved break, and everything had gone smoothly.

Though she didn't recognize the man's face, and she was usually good with those.

"I'm glad to hear you still remember that." Alex smiled weakly, attempting to lighten the mood.

"It was an honor, serving under you." Barclay locked eyes with her with a solemn nod. "I… don't know what'll happen to the DEO now, but…"

"Where were you when the bombs went off?" Maggie interrupted him. Alex shot a glare sideways – she wanted to ease the man into it slowly.

Barclay's eyes widened. "It… it was  _bombs_ …?"

"That's the working theory, yes." Alex nodded, resting her hand on the guardrail. But she didn't expect the man to shake his head. "No…  _no_ , ma'am. They weren't bombs, we were held  _hostage_."

Alex and Maggie frowned and shared a look.

"What do you mean?!"

Barclay moved up so that he was now resting his back against the pillows. "Ma'am, we were all monitoring alien activity in town because of the President's arrival. We got an alert, and we meant to contact you or Director Henshaw, but before we could – these men arrived. Wearing black, like us, so we couldn't distinguish them. We didn't know who they were, but they beat us down, shoved guns in our faces. Started shooting around, killing agents…"

"Mister Barclay." Maggie took a step in the direction of the bed. "Maggie Sawyer, NCPD Science Division. I know an explosion when I see one - this was a multiple-charge detonation."

"Officer Sawyer…" The man began, but Maggie interrupted him quickly. " _Detective_  Sawyer."

" _Detective_." He corrected himself with an apologetic nod. "…Maybe they planted explosives while they were holding us back because they didn't want anyone to hinder them?"

"But why would they blow up a building if they were still inside?" Alex stated, her question rhetorical. But Barclay replied anyway.

"I tried to stop them, ma'am. I tried to keep them from taking over the building, but they were too strong. I…" He sighed. "I failed. And I should have died like the rest of them."

" _No_." Alex shook her head. "Agent Barclay, you may not be the most experienced operative in the DEO, but what is rule number one?"

"Leave nobody behind." The man mumbled.

"Right." Alex nodded slowly. "And I'm  _not_  leaving you behind again. We can win this, as long as we get to know who those guys were. So me and Detective Sawyer are going to take a walk. You take a few deep breaths, and when we come back, you're going to tell us everything you know about the hostiles."

"Yes, ma'am." The man nodded. "You're right. I need to keep serving. Now more than ever."

Alex smiled weakly, a gleam of pride in her chest as she watched the disciplined look on his face. She put a hand on the small of Maggie's back, and lead her wife out of the room.

As soon as they were in the hallway, Maggie sighed. "Well,  _that_  was a waste of time."

"What?!" Alex frowned, stopping to turn and look at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come  _on_ , Alex. Don't tell me you believe a word of what he said!"

"Uh, why  _wouldn't_  I…?"

"He's been in the DEO for a few months, that's enough to get a proper layout of the building, and gain trust. He's kissing your ass with his  _yes ma'am_ 's and he conjured up some hostage scenario!"

"Having disciplined agents who respect their superior is hardly ass-kissing, Sawyer." Alex replied, narrowing her eyes. Maggie had been defensive with the man right from the start, and the agent honestly couldn't figure out why.

"Alex, you said it yourself. Why would they rush in and take hostages, and then  _die_  when they blow up the building?!"

"If they're invisible, maybe they just made it out alive but we didn't see it."

Maggie shook her head. "I've interrogated enough people in my life to know that Barclay is lying to you, Alex. He has something to do with it – maybe he's in on it, or maybe he saw something he wasn't supposed to. Either way, he's not telling you the truth."

"Why were you being such an asshole to him? He hadn't even said anything yet!" Alex shot back. "And don't give me any 'cop instinct' crap, because nothing about him was a red flag!"

"He made a connection with you right off the bat, Danvers!" Maggie chuckled dryly. "That's manipulation 101, of  _course_  that's a red flag!"

"Or maybe he was just scared because he survived when over 100 people  _died_ , and he wanted to tell somebody, Maggie!" Alex was now yelling. She couldn't believe how stubborn Maggie was acting. They rarely clashed visions on moral points, but  _this_ …

Alex hadn't seen this coming.

She sighed, and lowered her voice.

"Look, I know that this Cerberus stuff is getting to you. And I'm-… I'm  _terrified_. The DEO is gone, all my agents are dead, and you got kidnapped, and I thought you were dead." Alex looked down and took a shaky breath. "We can't… fight. I don't want us to fight. Not now."

Maggie opened her mouth to reply, but then Alex's phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out, seeing that it was Winn.

As soon as she accepted the call, Winn's voice screamed through her ear.

" _Alex! Alex, the next target! It's the NCPD Science Division! There's only 30 minutes left until those bombs go off, I don't know if we'll be able to evacuate everyone in the perimeter on time!_ "

Alex's eyes widened, as she looked up at Maggie's frown. "We're on our way."

" _Hurry!_ "

Alex disconnected the call. "The next target, at 8. Your precinct. We need togo,  _now_."

"Shit…" Maggie cursed, following Alex as she ran out of the hospital, but slowed down by the stitches on her side.

Alex had never wished for flying powers more than at that moment.

* * *

 

Winn glanced at his watch. "7.42. Did you send a message to J'onn?"

"I did, but he needed to do damage control at the site – somebody from the hospital leaked that Barclay was awake, and they're demanding answers." Kara sighed. "The DEO's blast radius was contained to  _just_ the building."

"Can we bet on that? The DEO is pretty isolated, but  _this_ …" Winn looked around at the many buildings surrounding the precinct. Stores, apartment buildings…

_Too many people._

"As many as we can. In the meantime, keep an eye out for anybody that looks shady. You take the precinct, I'll do the perimeter."

"Got it." Winn nodded, as he ran into the building, trying to figure out a strategy.

All coherent thought flew out the window though, as he decided that the quickest approach was to pull the fire alarm in the reception area.

The receptionist, a graying police officer, frowned and got up from behind his desk. "Young man, what the hell do you-…"

He was cut off by the blaring alarm, and the sprinklers activating immediately.

"There's a gas leak!" Winn yelled over the alarm, towards him. "We need to evacuate immediately!"

"So you  _pull the fire alarm_?!" The man responded, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Uh…" Winn trailed off nervously. "Doesn't matter! Everybody out!"

He ran towards the elevator, pressing the 'call' button, and waiting.

The officer sighed impatiently. "The elevators are blocked because of the alarm! Take the stairs!"

"Are you  _kidding_ …" Winn grunted, as he flung himself towards the stairs, jumping up the steps as fast as he could, while yelling 'evacuate!' to anybody who would listen.

"If this doesn't work out… I'm going to be  _arrested_." He muttered to himself. "And thrown into jail. For the rest of my life.  _Great_."

He ignored the thought for now, trying to get as many people out as possible.

* * *

 

When Alex and Maggie arrived at the precinct and jumped out of the car, the clock said 7.55. Kara was already busy rounding up people and flying them away from the perimeter, while there were officers running out of the police precinct, and ducking behind squad cars.

"Sawyer!" One of the uniformed men ran towards her. "Get away, there's a gas leak! The entire building could blow!"

"How many people are still inside?!" Maggie asked, taking a step in the direction of the building.

"There's a guy running through the building, but I don't know where he is!"

" _Winn_." Alex said, more to herself than to Maggie. "Come on!"

"Alex, there's no time!"

"Winn is still in there!" Alex snapped out of Maggie's grasp and ran towards the entrance of the building, shoving the door open.

" _Fuck_ ,  _Alex_!" Maggie growled, before running after her.

They were running out of time. But Alex didn't care, as she ran up the stairs, taking three steps at a time. "Winn! Winn, where are you?!"

She reached the top floor within the minute, running through the corridors and shoving doors open left and right, still shouting the technician's name.

Finally, after what felt like hours, a muffled reply came. " _Alex_!"

The agent ran towards the sound, and kicked the door at the end of the hallway open, revealing Winn. "Everyone is out."

Alex glanced down at her watch, and her stomach dropped.

_7.59._

"I'm sorry, Alex." Was all Winn said, a sad smile on his face. "We got everyone out."

"We did." Alex nodded slowly. "Thanks. For everything, Winn."

He laughed weakly. "You know, I wanted to be  _you_ , ever since I joined the DEO. Thanks for making me want to be a better person, Alex."

Alex's watch beeped.

_8.00._

They both braced for impact, raising their hands above their heads.

But the blow never came.

A few seconds later, Winn looked up questioningly. "Did… Did we die?"

"Nothing happened." Alex whispered.

Winn's eyes widened. "Which means…"

Alex clenched her jaw.

"We were wrong."

As the pair ran back downstairs, they were met halfway down the stairwell with a panting Maggie, clutching her side. Alex gasped, as she ran to stabilize her wife. "Are you  _insane_?! Why did you run inside, you could have died!"

"You  _would_  have died." Maggie shook her head weakly. "I didn't… want to stay outside."

Alex closed her eyes, as the realisation that the three of them had come  _really_  close to dying finally started to settle in.

"Nothing went off, not even outside." Maggie shook her head. "So why did they announce an attack…?"

As the trio ran outside, Alex reached for the nearest detective and held him by the shoulders. "Did any reports come in of explosions around town?"

"Yeah, earlier today, the FBI building that got attacked, it's all over the ne-…" The man started, but Alex ran off halfway through, cutting him off. Winn and Maggie trailed closely behind them.

"It's safe now, you can go back in!" Winn yelled over his shoulder to the waiting crowd.

The trio didn't expect a hysterical Kara landing down onto the concrete so roughly that it cracked underneath the pressure.

" _Shit._ " Alex cursed silently, as Kara raised a finger to her. "You… went inside! I had to hear it from  _them_!" She yelled, pointing to the surrounding officers. "You…  _all three…_  I…"

Alex's cellphone rang. As much as she hated to interrupt Kara by answering the call, she knew that it had to be important. It could be J'onn, with crucial details on the investigation.

Or…  _something else._

"Danvers." She answered anyway, knowing that Kara was already in full-on wrath mode. Might as well.

" _Agent Danvers, this is Dr. Ford from National City General Hospital. Uh… I think you should come here._ "

"Is this about Agent Barclay?" Alex asked, distancing herself from Kara's shouting match against Maggie and Winn. And while Maggie seemed to take it for now, she also knew that her wife was in a no-nonsense mood, probably because of the pain, and was convinced that it wouldn't take Maggie too long to stand up for herself.

" _Yes, ma'am. There was an… incident_."

Alex's stomach turned. "I'm 15 minutes out. What happened?"

" _I'd… rather not discuss it over the phone._ "

That's when Alex froze in her tracks, and disconnected the call in shock.

_How could they have been so blind._

Rule number one of the DEO –  _Leave nobody behind._

They killed Barclay.


	9. Chapter 9

"He was shot point blank, from what we can tell so far." Dr. Ford hurried to escort Alex through the hospital corridor. "The bullet went through his head and the pillow, and got stuck in the bed frame."

Alex nodded, swallowing down the nausea that was coming up in her throat. "Has anyone else been inside since it happened?"

"No, ma'am." The man shook his head. "We sealed it off, as per your orders."

"Good." Alex said, as the duo stopped in front of Barclay's hospital room. The doctor hesitated. "Our security wasn't optimal, but someone  _should_  have seen something, since this corridor is watched 24/7 by orderlies and the ward nurse."

"Any cameras pointed at his door?" Alex said, looking around.

Dr. Ford shook his head. "Something happened with the footage again. It seems that the first black-out during the disappearance of Detective Sawyer wasn't a coincidence."

Alex closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she realized that she wasn't any closer to figuring out what happened, and  _how_  it could possibly have happened.

Whoever was responsible for the DEO bombing, knew what they were doing – hiding in plain sight and getting away with shooting a high profile target in the middle of a busy hospital.

She didn't like it at all.

"I'll give you some privacy while you work, ma'am. Give a shout when you're done, so that we can open the crime scene up to the NCPD."

"Detective Sawyer is on her way." Alex replied, glancing at the door. "She just gave me a headstart."

Dr. Ford nodded, and handed her a pair of latex gloves from a nearby cart. Then, he opened the door for her.

On the outside, the room looked like any hospital room in the hallway. But the second Alex came in, she was greeted with the coppery smell of spilled blood, reminding her that  _it hadn't been a dream._

Tristan Barclay was still lying on the bed, his body completely limp. It almost looked like he was sleeping, had it not been for the blood leaking from a bullet-sized hole between his eyes.

The T-box – the shape between the eyes and nose. The deadliest spot to fire a bullet through someone's head. Alex leaned in closer and examined. Based on the entry wound, she knew that he would have been shot from less than a few feet away. It was up close and personal.

No security cameras, no witnesses… A meticulous job. The perfect crime.

But Alex refused to believe that there wasn't a flaw in their plan. She just had to find it.

She leaned back for a second, recapping what she knew.

The people that bomb the DEO, announce another attack. Instead of going after another big target, they assassinate the only person that survived the bombing.

_But why would they announce it and draw attention to it?_

To be fair – it  _had_  a result. Alex had taken her eyes off the man, which had resulted in his execution.

And now, they were back to square one. The only difference was that Barclay had told his side of the story – hostage takers.

Maybe they were afraid that he'd recognised them, and silenced him before he could say more?

But that would have meant that they were listening in, because she and Maggie were the only ones in the room during his explanation, and only the three of them knew that they had stepped away for a break.

So, that could mean two things.

Either the hospital room was bugged, and they had eyes on the inside…

… Or Maggie had been right all along in calling Barclay's bluff, and he was one of the bad guys after all.

"Alex."

The agent spun around at the sound of the voice, expecting Maggie in the doorway. But instead she found J'onn, who seemed frustrated to say the least. But his face showed a forced calmness as he stepped into the room. "Winn called me about what happened."

"Point blank range, looks like a handgun caliber. Nobody saw anything."

J'onn nodded at Alex's words, and glanced at the man on the bed. "Barclay… I remember his interview."

Alex looked up, her interest piqued by his words. Maybe J'onn knew something that could put her mind at ease.

His gaze was locked on the body. "The second he walked in, I knew he was one of the good guys."

Alex narrowed her eyes at that. The DEO wasn't exactly on the grid, so joining the ranks was only possible through personal recommendation or relocation from another government organisation. "How  _did_  he get in?"

"The CEO for the last company he worked for wrote a personal recommendation. He's one of the big guys, I couldn't exactly refuse the interview. But Barclay was a reliable agent during training, that's why I wanted him with you on that Marsh'ah mission. I was impressed – he reminded me a bit of you."

"Of  _me_?" Alex shot back. "What do you mean?"

"He had that fire. He had something to prove, just like you did."

Alex glanced back at Barclay's body. "We need to look into him. He might have had something to do with it, this could have been a clean-up job. And he could have been bugged, we need to do an autopsy on the body, see if they injected something."

"Maggie should be here soon, we can contact the ME…"

Alex cut him off. "No. The NCPD Medical Examiner isn't familiar with alien tech like this."

"What do you propose? The nearest DEO facility that has an ME on site is on the other side of the country."

Alex shook her head, moving closer to pull Barclay's body away from the pillow to examine the exit wound. "We can't move him. The press can't hear about Barclay being dead, or there'll be mass panic. We'll move him down to the morgue here, and I'll do it myself."

J'onn raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Alex, you don't have…"

"The training? The skills? A clue what I'm talking about?" Alex huffed. "It's the only way, J'onn."

J'onn took a deep breath, before nodding slowly. "I'll check out the rest of the room, try and read some minds to see if anybody here knows more than they're letting on."

Alex winced involuntarily at the words; J'onn never read minds without consent if it wasn't an absolute emergency.

However – if one situation ever fit that description, it was this one.

Alex headed out of the room, pressing her phone to her ear, while in search of Dr. Ford.

* * *

 

As soon as the situation at the precinct had settled down, Maggie had told Winn and Kara to go back. She would deal with the rest of the cops asking questions and face the consequences, but for now, both Winn and Kara needed to be problemsolving.

Kara had wrapped her arms around Maggie quickly, before grabbing Winn and launching herself up into the sky.

Alex had left minutes ago, rushing to the hospital after announcing to the three of them that Barclay had been in an accident.

Nobody needed to say anything, yet they all knew what it meant.

_They'd been wrong._

But now that she was alone, she faced the task of explaining to her colleagues why Winn had rushed into her precinct and evacuated the entire thing.

The four of them had agreed to keep the cover of a possible alien attack on the precinct, that Maggie had discovered through her detective work. Nobody in the NCPD was allowed to know more about the DEO bombing than absolutely necessary. But as much as she had agreed to it instantly, it still meant that she would face the backlash – and possibly would be getting fired.

But at least everybody made it out alive and there wasn't an attack.

Maggie headed into the building, seeing the sheer damage that the sprinklers had caused.

" _Fuck_ …" She muttered to herself, as she headed for the stairs to reach her floor.

But before she could take the first step, she was shoved into the wall roughly, her side screaming in pain at the impact. A hand was put on her mouth, and before she could do anything, she felt herself being pulled into a deserted meeting room on the ground floor.

She shoved away from her assailant, already completely aware of what had just happened, and shot the man a glare as she watched him lock the door.

As soon as he was satisfied, he turned around to face her, and she finally saw Greene's face. He looked furious. "What the  _fuck_  did you do, Sawyer?!"

"I tried to stop them, but how the hell was I supposed to do that?!" Maggie defended herself angrily. "I thought they were going to blow up the precinct, Greene!"

"You  _know_  they won't!" Greene yelled. "Maggie,  _damn it_ , if you're not going to help me…"

"I'm sticking to the plan, alright?!" Maggie put a hand on her side absent-mindedly. "But if you're not getting anywhere soon, they'll get onto you."

"Then it's your job to keep them away from me. I'm  _working_  it."

"Did you shoot Barclay?" Maggie asked, taking a step in his direction.

Greene laughed weakly. "We both know that Barclay was a loose end."

"So you did."

"Barclay shot himself." Greene replied. "He stuck to the plan, 8 PM sharp. I just went to pick up the piece."

"Alex is suspicious about him." Maggie lied quickly. "She thinks he was part of it."

"Couldn't have picked a worse one to tie the knot?"

Maggie didn't laugh at his joke. He grunted. "I'm getting close. We have another meeting tonight. Don't forget  _I'm_  risking my ass here to get inside and get information. They'll kill me if they figure out I'm not on their side."

"You insisted on doing it." Maggie huffed. "Don't come crawling back now. And if you get intel, you talk to  _me_. Not leave Winn cryptic phone messages."

Greene's eyes widened just slightly. "You-… you  _knew_  that was me?"

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't exactly subtle, was it? Giving Cerberus up. You're lucky I managed to sell it, but it made you the bad guy."

"What else is new?" Greene chuckled dryly. "So, how do you want to play it with the DEO? They're going to keep digging until they find something, and they're going to get in my way sooner or later."

"I know." Maggie nodded. "I think we need to scare them off."

"We tried that with your kidnapping and it didn't work." Greene countered.

"That's what  _you_  think. Alex got hysterical." Maggie stopped herself, closing her eyes at the immense wave of sadness at the thought of lying to her wife. "… one more push and she's over the edge."

"Okay. Off to plan B, then." Greene said. "But if she shoots me, I'm coming back for you, Sawyer."

"Deal. And next time you want to be dramatic – grab my arm or something. If I need to get that thing restitched again, I'm shooting you myself."

Greene clenched his jaw, and unlocked the door again, leaving Maggie alone in the room with a heavy sigh.

* * *

 

"Tristan Barclay – born December 12th 1989." Winn stated out loud.

Kara nodded, leaning back against the table and reaching for another piece of pizza. "I remember him, one of the junior agents."

Winn turned back to his laptop. "Joined the DEO seven months ago. Valedictorian in high school, champion debater and on the swim team. Joined the army, got an honorable discharge after two tours, and then started working as private security up until his recruitment."

"From private security to government agent – that seems like an odd career choice." Kara frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"Oh." Winn replied, as a pop-up screen appeared. "It seems he received a personal recommendation letter from the CEO at his last jobsite."

"Who?" Kara tilted her head, moving closer to the laptop. Winn squinted to read the name on the letter. "Jordan Lyons, CEO of Lyons Inc. He worked security for the firm and Lyons seemed so happy that he pulled strings, he sent this straight to J'onn."

"Guess we'd better go ask mister Lyons some questions." Kara said, dropping her half-eaten slice of pizza back onto her plate and reaching for her coat. Winn nodded, and followed her out the door.

* * *

 

"Hey."

Alex looked up at the greeting, seeing Maggie standing in the doorway of the morgue. The agent turned back to her work – making a meticulous incision in Barclay's left temple.

"I see you've decided to jump ahead." Maggie commented. "You knew that I had to check out the crime scene first?"

"I know." Alex said, not looking up. "It couldn't wait. He could be bugged, I need to find a transmitter."

"Bugged? Why do you think that?" The detective tilted her head and crossed her arms as she moved to stand next to her wife.

"The three of us were the only people that knew that he was going to be left alone. So someone had to have been listening in to know that it was possible to kill him." Alex said, finally glancing up to meet Maggie's eyes. "If I can find out how, we can finally figure out who's behind it."

"I'll leave you to it, then."

Alex shook her head. "You can stay if you want. I don't mind. I'm used to working and talking at the same time. Helps me stay sharp."

Maggie nodded slowly, watching Alex work. The focus and precision that Alex wielded was absolutely amazing, and Maggie couldn't help but feel proud that she could call this woman hers.

But then the uneasy feeling settled in.

She  _knew_. She knew everything, damn well enough, but she couldn't tell Alex anything. To protect her from the people that did this, because there was another way that kept Alex safe.

But that meant lying and manipulating – two things she vowed to Alex on their wedding day she'd never do.

Though, if it meant that Alex would be spared from a gruesome death at the hands of Cerberus…

Maggie would give her life to make that happen.

_She probably would, at some point._

Her musings were interrupted by the door to the morgue flying open, startling Alex and almost ruining her handywork. "What the  _fu_ -…"

Alex's curse was cut off by the figure in the doorway, that Maggie now recognized as Greene. "Sawyer, I need to talk to you."

"Ever heard of  _knocking_?!" Alex growled, glancing down to make sure that she hadn't messed up the incision she'd been making.

"Did you follow me here?!" Maggie huffed. She had to provoke him enough to get his lashing out to make sense, but she had to stay the victim. "I told you at the precinct, I don't want to talk to you."

This caught Alex's interest, as she stopped examining the incision and glanced between Maggie and her boss nervously.

"Sawyer, outside. Now." Greene grunted. "That's an order."

Maggie sighed, and turned to Alex, putting a hand on the small of her wife's back before walking out of the room. She didn't miss the look of concern that Alex was shooting her as she headed for the door.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Greene nodded. "Showtime."

The next thing Maggie felt was the man's hand wrapping around her throat and shoving her down onto the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

"We're here to see mister Lyons." Kara slammed her hand down onto the reception desk, startling the woman behind it. She looked up from the rims of her glasses. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but it's an emergency." Kara replied quickly. "It can't wait."

"Well, mister Lyons is a very busy man, so I'm afraid-…"

Winn cut the woman off easily by reaching into his back pocket and yanking out his badge holder. "FBI, special agent Schott. Me and my partner need to go talk to him – it won't take long. Unless you want us to take you in for obstructing justice too, ma'am?"

The receptionist opened and closed her mouth a few times, before she clenched her jaw and reached for the phone. "…Mister Lyons? You have visitors. FBI."

Kara, in the meantime, was too amazed at Winn's performance to feel victorious. As soon as the woman had sent them up in the elevator and the doors closed, she turned to her friend. "That was…  _amazing_."

"I've been binging Criminal Minds." Winn admitted with a weak chuckle, before he grew serious again. "How are we going to do this?"

Kara sighed. "… All of this could still be a coincidence. But Lyons recommended him to the DEO personally, and pulled strings to get him in the DEO ranks as soon as possible… I'd just like to know why." She glanced up. "And if he doesn't want to talk to us… Then Supergirl can go ask him too."

The elevator doors opened, and the duo made their way over to the CEO's office. The door was already open, so Kara just knocked against it. "Mister Lyons?"

Behind the desk was a man who looked to be in his early forties, with dark brown hair. He looked up from his computer monitor at the sound, and smiled weakly, getting up. "You must be the agents."

"Agent Danvers, Agent Schott." Kara said, motioning between the two of them as Winn flashed his badge.

Kara tried not to show how proud she felt of calling herself by her sister's title.

"What can I help you with?" Lyons shook both of their hands, before motioning for them to sit down at his desk. The two complied easily, and Kara took the lead. "We want to ask you some questions involving Tristan Barclay."

Lyons nodded slowly. "Tristan… Do you have any word on his condition? The media has been a bit… reluctant in giving out information."

"We can't disclose any information on the investigation." Winn said, in his authoritative-agent voice.

Lyons chuckled weakly. "I figured. Oh, and before you go on, I know the two of you are DEO agents – Director Henshaw is a good friend of mine. That's why I wanted to give him Tristan in the first place."

Kara clenched her jaw, but nodded. "Can you tell us why you recommended his transfer? Wasn't he happy doing private security for you?"

"He loved his job here. And I loved having him. But… it was time for him to move on, and I wanted to give him a push in the right direction, instead of dropping him like a brick." The man tucked his hand in his pocket casually.

Kara adjusted her glasses. "So… you contacted Director Henshaw to ask him to assign Barclay to the DEO… seven months ago?"

"That's right. And he was hired on the spot, I knew he would be – Tristan is a very hard worker."

"What did his job here entail, Mister Lyons?" Kara said, now nearing full-on reporter mode. "Private security is a broad term."

"He was a security guard at one of the sites in National City, combined with personal protection duty." Lyons said. "He was my bodyguard at a few private events."

Kara nodded. "Did you ever feel like something was off about him? That he was doing something…"

"… Shady?" Lyons finished for her with a weak chuckle. "Absolutely not. Tristan was a loyal, disciplined and caring man, and I'm very grateful that he made it out of that bombing alive."

Winn sighed, realizing that they weren't going to get anything more out of the man. "Is there anything else you can tell us, something that will help us forward?"

Lyons got up from his desk with a frown. "I'd love to help you, but I'm not quite sure what you're implying with all these questions. You're making it sound like Tristan was  _involved_  in the bombing."

"We're just checking out every possible lead we have, sir." Winn said quickly. "There's no malintent."

Lyons raised an eyebrow. "Well, then, you have my answer."

"Okay. Again – we're sorry to bother you, mister Lyons."

"Jordan." Lyons corrected Kara with a wink, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a business card. "Here… If you have any more questions. Or – you know – if you want to get more personal."

Winn didn't like the tone the man put on at all, so with a forced polite smile, he pulled Kara out of the office.

* * *

 

With the interruption gone, Alex was finally free to continue her autopsy on Barclay's body. But as much as she willed herself to focus, she couldn't help but think about Greene and Maggie.

The man had seemed scary and angry, and the last thing Alex wanted in their current situation was for Maggie to feel scared.

So she put down the scalpel and took off her gloves, and headed for the door – stopping just inches from the doorknob to listen to the noises on the other side.

" _I told you to stay out of it, and look what you did_!" Greene's furious hissing made Alex's skin crawl.

" _I'm going to figure out what happened during that mission, Greene. And when I do, I'm going to make them pay for what they did to the DEO._ "

A humorless chuckle. " _I told you I'd kill you. I won't hesitate. I tried at the bomb site, but you didn't die – I won't make that mistake again. You, your wife, and everyone you've ever loved, will die._ "

Alex yanked the door open, her eyes wide, as she pulled her gun. But all she saw was Greene's back, as he was walking away, towards the exit.

Leaving behind a panting Maggie, down on the ground and covering the stitches on her side with a clenched hand. Alex considered going after the man, but shelved the thought in favor of kneeling down by her wife's side. "Hey… It's okay, you're okay, he's gone."

"Alex… he's going to kill you." Maggie whispered. "If we touch Cerberus again, he's going to-…"

Alex shushed her gently. "Shh, don't worry. We'll figure something out, alright? We always have."

Maggie raised the hand that had been covering her side, and put it up to the light, so that Alex could see that it was coated in fresh blood.

Alex glanced down at her side, expecting Maggie's stitches to have ripped, but saw that the bandage was still completely intact. Instead, she watched as Maggie wiped her hand on her pants, now revealing a symbol carved into her hand. It looked like three C's carved around one another.

It looked too methodical to just be a random cut. And Maggie seemed to agree, because her breaths quickened at the sight. "I-I… know this symbol."

Alex yanked at the lab coat she'd been given, ripping off a piece of cloth to wrap against Maggie's hand to stop the bleeding for now until she could bandage it properly.

"… I think it's a mark. He  _marked_  me."

The agent looked up at those words, freezing in place. But as Maggie stared down at her now covered hand, she swallowed thickly.

Alex didn't have to be a genius to figure out that the symbol carved in Maggie's hand meant trouble.

Greene's words had been nothing short of terrifying.

But the sight of the symbol…

Alex knew that it was familiar.

The three C's had to stand for Cerberus, the three-headed dog. It was starting to look like Cerberus was more than just an operation name – it was an actual group.

The group that had bombed the DEO.

Suddenly, she remembered where she'd seen the symbol before.

It hit her like a truck, pushing the wind out of her as she emitted a strangled gasp and ran back into the morgue behind her, leaving a still panting Maggie for just a second, to reach for Barclay's hand, her stomach somersaulting at the realization.

_The carvings were identical._


	11. Chapter 11

For the first time since the bombing had initially happened, J'onn had called for the five of them to regroup and talk each other through what they knew.

So now they found themselves in Alex and Maggie's apartment, sitting down and having a drink. It was far from relaxing, but at least they all had a second to take a breath and let the adrenalin of the past few hours flow disappear.

As Kara forced Alex and Maggie to eat something, J'onn took the lead in the meeting. "The public is getting impatient – and the President isn't sure what to think. We've been running around blindly, we need to take a step back and get a plan first. What do we know?"

Winn shot up immediately, reaching for his laptop. "Lyons, the CEO that recommended Barclay, wasn't much help. He seemed insistent that Barclay wouldn't have anything to do with such a plot."

"Barclay was shot point blank." Alex continued. "But nobody saw anything. Which means that the assailant was probably invisible. But there  _has_ to be some kind of way that we would be able to see them? If they plan another attack and it goes right past us…" She turned to Winn. "Please tell me there's something you can do."

"I… I don't know, Alex. If these aliens are from another dimension, or if they use technology that's too advanced…" He grunted in defeat. "I doubt it."

"We can't let them get away with this." Kara shook her head.

Alex took a deep breath before continuing. "I found nothing on Barclay – which means that he wasn't bugged. The hospital room was clear, and nothing in the hallway looked shady either. But then…"

She sent an insecure glance towards her wife, which made the others frown. Kara raised an eyebrow. "Then what?"

"Maggie got a visit from her Lieutenant. Greene. He told her to stop digging, and that he'd kill her and us if she did."

"What does Greene know?" J'onn shot back. "Maggie…?"

"Not more than I know. He's just scared – I  _know_  him. He wouldn't put us in danger like that."

"But he'd vow to  _kill_  you…?" Alex huffed indignantly. "You're staying away from him. And if I see him around again, I'm ripping his  _tongue_  out for talking to you like that."

"Did he hurt you?" Kara asked, glancing down at the fresh bandage on Maggie's hand. The detective tucked it away instantly, but knew that there was no avoiding it. She sighed. "Greene… put something on my hand to remind me of what was at stake."

"That's not what you told me." Alex frowned. "You said it was a mark. A target…" She turned back to the group. "Barclay had a mark on his hand. I thought it was just a wound from the blast, I didn't think twice about it. But… Maggie's is identical."

"Which means…" Winn tried.

"… She's next." Kara whispered.

"But why you? What do you know? What did you-…" Alex cut herself off with widening eyes. "The guy. You saw the invisible guy that nobody else saw."

"They're killing witnesses." J'onn grunted. "Maggie, you need to stay here. I don't want you out in the field in case something happens."

"What?!" Maggie's eyes widened. "No,  _no_! I need to help, we need to find these guys!"

"Mags." Alex put a hand on her back. "What if they come for you? What if they decide to shoot you, or  _kidnap_  you again…"

"Winn, we need  _some_  sort of solution to the invisibility problem." J'onn said. "Focus on that for now. Alex, Kara – do we have any other leads?"

"Barclay's trail went cold. Nothing in his files showed anything that leads to believe he went full-on terrorist before he joined the DEO."

"I'm still convinced that Barclay is a good guy." J'onn shook his head. "… But it doesn't hurt to try, and I'm out of ideas. Kara, go interview some of his army buddies. Maybe something happened overseas."

Kara nodded, and folded her arms, waiting for the rest of the briefing. J'onn rubbed his temples. "Nobody that we interviewed at the DEO site mentioned anything about unusual behavior around the building."

"Barclay said that the hostage takers were dressed like DEO agents." Alex said. "That wouldn't seem out of the ordinary at all. And the explosives could have easily been smuggled inside through other ways."

"I thought the DEO security was airtight?" Kara frowned.

Winn, J'onn and Alex let out a collective huff.

"Not as airtight as we want it to be." J'onn replied. "But still – smuggling in enough explosives to bring down the entire building, that would take months."

"Seven months?"

Alex sent a glare to her wife, thinking that she was making a joke, but Maggie looked dead serious. "I'm just saying – I've seen the amount of explosives it takes to blow up a building like the DEO, and it's not exactly covered by putting some in your duffel bag on your way to a sparring session."

"Did we ever recover pieces of the bombs?" Kara asked.

"Yes, the NCPD was analyzing them. It was expertly made, so whoever did it – it's not their first time." J'onn replied. "But we already figured out that whoever is behind it is organized and trained, so that doesn't bring us any closer. Kara – find out what you can on Barclay. Winn – figure out that invisibility situation. Alex – you and I need to update the President."

"I'll come with you." Maggie offered, but J'onn shook his head. "You need to stay here, away from the open."

"I'll see them coming, J'onn." The detective replied. "I'm the only one that can see them!"

"You saw  _one_  of them, that doesn't mean you can see all of them. And you need to stay and help Winn figure out why."

Maggie sighed. Alex took pity on her. "Let me check out those cuts before you go."

Kara moved over to Winn to get information on the location of Barclay's army unit, while Alex carefully unwrapped the bandage around her wife's hand. Maggie winced, as the bandage was saturated with blood.

"It doesn't look infected." Alex shook her head slowly. "That's good. I'm just going to disinfect it again, and then I'll put another bandage on, alright? Be right back." Alex pressed a delicate kiss to Maggie's cheek, before getting up to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom.

"I'll send the adresses to your phone." Winn ensured to Kara. "These are all the people he served the two tours with. You might want to start with his platoon leader."

"Got it." Kara nodded, before she glanced over at Maggie, who was staring at the wound on her hand. "That looks bad."

"It's fine – doesn't even hurt." Maggie smiled weakly, trying to put the other woman at ease. But as Kara turned around to head for the window, she did a double take with a loud gasp, her eyes widening as she turned towars Maggie once more.

"What?! What is it?" Winn asked.

"That symbol!" Kara said, moving forward to take Maggie's hand in her own to study the three C's.

"What about it…?" Alex said as she appeared from the bathroom with the first aid kit. Kara looked up to meet her sister's eyes, before she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small rectangular card.

"Lyons' business card." Winn stated. Before their eyes, Kara flipped it to show what she was talking about.

Next to the man's name and his company information, was the logo of his firm. Lyons Inc.

The symbol was almost identical to the carvings on Maggie's hand.

"Oh  _fuck_." Winn whispered, before he moved back to his laptop.

Maggie felt her stomach sink.

Alex shot up, heading for her door, but J'onn moved to block her path. "Wait, Alex."

"We need to bring him in!" Alex yelled. "Let me go!"

"No." J'onn shook his head. "We need to be  _careful_  with this. If we go in guns blazing, they'll know that we know! We need to  _use_  it!"

"How?! Sit back and watch as that guy has Maggie killed?!  _No_!" Alex growled.

"Alex,  _babe_ , sit down." Maggie said. "J'onn's right, we need to think this through first."

"Lyons looked a bit like a hypocrite, but I doubt he's the one getting his hands dirty." Kara shook her head. "He has the means to support it, though. Whatever he has against the DEO."

"Don't you guys think that this looks too easy?" Maggie shook her head. "The guy's a rich and powerful CEO. If he wanted to hurt us, he wouldn't use the symbol plastered all over his walls as a secret code."

"Well… Maybe he wants to taunt us? After all, we're what's left of the thing he tried to destroy. He has a direct connection to Barclay – the sole survivor of the blast, and he  _personally_  recommended the guy for DEO training." Kara shook his head. "I'm siding with Alex here. We need to bring him in and get him to talk before more people get hurt."

"Guys, we  _don't know_  what this is! This could be a coincidence." Maggie tried. But Alex was having none of it. "You have to be  _blind_  not to see this, Maggie! He connects all of the pieces that we had before.  _God_ , how could we not have seen it?! He and Barclay worked together, and-…"

"You're  _making assumptions_!" Maggie yelled, raising her voice and jumping up. "You're jumping to conclusions! Before you go and arrest one of the most influential people in National City with an  _army_  of lawyers, can you at least  _consider_  that maybe there's another way this all fits together?!"

"Uh… guys?" Winn broke the tension. "I… hacked into Lyons Incorporated's intranet, and I found the site that Barclay was guarding. It's a factory that was deactivated a few years ago, but is still owned by the company."

He turned the laptop so everybody could see the map on the screen. "… Barclay was the only one that was ever put on security duty there."

The room went dead quiet.

Kingswood and 22nd.

_The old factory building._

Maggie felt herself sink back into her seat as she felt four pairs of eyes land on her.


	12. Chapter 12

The silence that followed was the most deafening sound Maggie had ever heard.

And glancing upward, she could see that her wife was watching her with such an unreadable and confused expression that it physically hurt.

"That's the site of the NCPD op." Winn supplied needlessly. Maggie nodded slowly.

"What's going on?" Kara frowned, crossing her arms. "Something doesn't add up here."

Maggie glanced around the room, seeing the different faces staring at her, and realized that she had two choices.

Either lie her way out of it, or tell them the truth.

And both options meant trouble.

"The mission was classified for a reason-…." Maggie began, but she was interrupted immediately.

"You knew."

Maggie's head snapped up to meet J'onn's eyes.

"You  _knew_  that they were going to bomb the DEO, you knew that everyone would be killed."

"J'onn…" Alex warned, a stern look on her face as she took a step forward. While Maggie had been yelling at her not even a minute ago about making assumptions, J'onn was accusing Maggie of things that he couldn't prove. A step too far in her book.

"I didn't know all of it. I didn't know  _enough_."

That made Alex freeze and glance back at her wife with wide eyes. The previous fire to defend her had disappeared instantly.

"You don't know what you're up against. Even  _I_  still don't know. All I know is that it's better if you guys stay out of it."

"All of my agents are  _dead_." J'onn growled, raising a finger in her direction. "The entire DEO building is in a pile of dust and rubble, and  _you knew_."

Maggie swallowed thickly as she watched his eyes glow red.

"You need to start talking. Now." Kara said, an eyebrow raised. While the heroine didn't look as ready to murder as J'onn did, it was hard to ignore her clenched jaw.

Lastly, Maggie's eyes flitted back to meet Alex's warm brown ones, that looked like they were pleading with her to explain. To make her understand.

"Cerberus was a mission we did, to raid the Lyons Inc. abandoned factory." Maggie said. "Passerby's had complained about loud noises coming from the place, assuming it was squatters. We were called in to investigate. We thought it was just aliens hiding, a routine procedure – arrest them, take them in, lock them up."

Nobody responded, and Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Greene insisted that he led the op. He usually doesn't go out in the field, so it surprised me. Me and two uniforms were his back-up… When we arrived, we saw the portal. Greene ordered one of the officers to go check it out, but the guy was shot in the back… The guy that shot him, it was Barclay."

"You knew Barclay…" Kara whispered.

"As soon as he shot, Barclay ran into the portal. Greene ran after him – I warned him to stay back, but he jumped anyway. So I jumped after him. The portal… led to another dimension. To a room. Some sort of command center."

"Aliens…?" Alex asked.

Maggie shook her head. " _Humans_. About twelve of them. Everything happened really fast, but I recognized faces. People I knew." She glanced up to meet Alex's eyes again. "Agents."

"DEO?!" Alex's voice seemed stuck in her throat.

"NCPD too. I didn't understand – I thought the DEO had a secret joint taskforce, or… that we stumbled upon another version of Earth. It ended in a shootout, the uniform was shot through the head, I managed to take two guys out before I went down. Greene was the last man standing, and they cut him a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"If he provided them the intel they needed, they would spare him and his family. I was still hanging on to consciousness and I managed to get up. Greene saved my life by telling them that I had contacts at the DEO that he didn't have. We both got away."

Another deafening silence that lasted a few seconds, until Kara broke it. "So… what did they want from you?"

Maggie hesitated. Giving them that piece of the puzzle would mean that they would be able to put everything together at last.

The choice was made for her, however, when Alex whispered the reply.

"You gave them the blueprints."

Maggie clenched her eyes shut, feeling her throat close up. "I didn't know what they were going to do with them."

"And you didn't even consider the fact that _this_  would happen?!" J'onn shot back angrily.

"Of  _course_  I did!" Maggie defended. "But it was either  _that_  or them killing all of you anyway! They were corrupt agents all around the DEO, they could kill Alex or  _you_  or Kara in a heartbeat, I  _had_  to."

"You didn't." J'onn spat. "You could have told us."

"I didn't know how deep it went." Maggie shook her head. "Greene has infiltrated them, but I'm convinced that he was actually in on the plan ever since the beginning. So I have to play along with him, I did  _horrible_  things, but I don't know who I can trust anymore. If I don't help him,  _he's_  coming after you. And I knew that if I did, and you would find out, that would be the end too. So…"

Maggie took a shaky breath, and got up from the couch. "There. Now you know."

As she moved to head out the door, she heard the click of a gun safety, and froze. She turned around slowly, revealing that J'onn had pulled his gun on her. "We're not done."

"Greene told me about the bombing. He faked the message of the decapitation, so that the four of you would be at the airfield, instead of at the DEO." Maggie whispered through tears. "That's all I know. I only gave them the blueprints, I  _swear_."

She moved back towards the door, but J'onn yelled again. "STOP!"

Maggie huffed. "What do you think will happen, J'onn?" She spun around again to chuckle dryly. "I walk out of here, I'm  _dead_  anyway. You might as well shoot me now."

"You saw faces!" Winn interjected quickly. "You recognized them. Just give us names, things we can investigate. We can work from there, this isn't the end."

"There could be tens or hundreds more faces that we don't know about."

"J'onn, put the gun down." Alex looked up at her boss. He didn't seem eager to comply, but she saw his hand clench around the gun nervously. " _Please_."

"Alex…" Kara warned, but her sister ignored her, turning to her wife. "I don't understand why you lied, why you didn't just talk to us. We've fought threats bigger than this."

"Those were guys that were under your command. That you thought you could trust. Greene gave me instructions not to tell you."

Alex glanced down at the floorboards, taking a deep breath. "How do I know you're not lying about this? About any of this?"

J'onn, gun still trained, raised an eyebrow at the question. Maggie met Alex's eyes and pressed her lips together. "The night after that mission, I came home. I was limping, because of the gunshot. You saw it the second I walked through the door, and you started fussing." She chuckled weakly, tears spilling down her cheeks. "… I said that I loved you, that I would never let anyone take you away from me. No matter what. And… you didn't understand what I meant, but you told me that sometimes people do stupid shit for the people they love."

Alex felt her heart stop, as she remembered the exact conversation they'd had on the couch she was standing next to, months ago.

J'onn lowered the gun slowly, seeing Alex's reaction.

"Those hundred people that died, that's on me. You have every right to hate me.  _I_ hate me too. Don't worry about it." Maggie moved back towards the door.

"Maggie, wait-…" Kara said, but the detective shook her head, and walked out of the apartment.

Kara moved to stand in front of Alex, and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Go after her."

"I…"

For the first time since first starting out in the field, Alex froze.

She couldn't move.

Maggie had been complicit in killing all of her colleagues. Friends.

If she'd told her, the bombing could have been prevented.

Alex felt numb.

As Kara realized that her sister wasn't moving, she turned around and sped into the hallway herself.

Alex turned slowly to meet J'onn's eyes. The earlier anger had made place for disappointment and confusion.

"Her story checks out." Winn said quietly, breaking the silence, as he was hunched over his laptop.

"Our own agents bombed us." J'onn grunted, steadying himself against the table and lowering his head. "Right underneath us." He looked up. "We need to talk to Lyons. And Greene."

"They're going to get spooked, they'll know that we know something." Alex managed to reply.

J'onn pushed himself up, and balled his hands into fists. "I want them to  _pay_  for what they did. Every last one of them. We're going  _nuclear_."

In front of their eyes, J'onn changed into his Martian form, and shot up from the open window before either of them could stop him.

Leaving Alex and Winn in a very awkward silence, both of them processing the events of the last few minutes.

"All of it… She's been lying to me for months." Alex whispered brokenly. "We vowed that there would be no secrets between the two of us…"

"She did it to protect you.  _Us_." Winn tried.

But Alex closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's not good enough."

After that, she ran out the door too.


	13. Chapter 13

"Maggie,  _wait_ …"

The detective huffed, and ignored the blonde that was running to keep up with her.

"Where are you going?!"

Maggie rolled her eyes. "As far away from you guys as possible. If they come after me, I don't want any of you caught in the crossfire. So get back, and stay with Alex. I have to do this alone."

Kara sped up so that she was standing in front of her sister-in-law, blocking her path. Maggie jumped back, and growled. "Kara, I'm  _serious_. Leave."

"No. Not when you're like this. I may not agree with the things you did, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you get hurt." Kara shook her head. "I'm staying with you. Where are we going?"

"Stay out of it, Kara. I'm not going to ask you again." Maggie leaned forward, glaring threateningly. For a second, even the Girl of Steel cowered under her gaze, but then Kara swallowed thickly, and her gaze softened. "Maggie,  _please_. You know Alex is never going to forgive herself if anything happens to you."

Maggie chuckled dryly. "There won't be much forgiving to do if she ends up on the bad side of a knife. Or worse."

After that, she shoved past Kara – ignoring the pain shooting up in her shoulder from feeling like she hit a wall – and continued down to where her bike was parked.

"Okay, fine." She heard Kara say behind her. "But I want to know where you're going."

That sentence made Maggie stop and turn around for a second to shoot her an incredulous look.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "I promise you I won't come with you, but I want to know where you're going if you're in trouble."

Maggie took a deep breath. "I'm going back to the factory, to look for another portal to the Room, to try and see if I can figure out what their next move is."

"If they see you there, they'll kill you on sight." Kara frowned.

The detective raised a challenging eyebrow in reply. "Yeah. But at least I'll have a chance to make things right."

"The portal in there got deactivated, from what I could tell. I went to the building when we first heard about Cerberus." Kara said. "I heard voices though, but I couldn't see anybody. Maybe they were in that other dimension that you talked about. Be careful."

Kara pressed her lips together, and shot up into the sky. Maggie nodded slowly, and walked to her bike.

* * *

 

"Not that I don't appreciate two visits in such a short period of time, agent, but I'm afraid I have nothing else to add to my stateme-… Hank?!"

Hank smiled weakly at the sight of Lyons' wide eyes.

Lyons was an acquaintance of his. They had met at a private event and occasionally went out for drinks together. He figured that using the friendly approach was the best way to go to get Lyons to lower his guard.

After that, reading his mind would be a breeze.

"It's been too long, Hank! Jesus Christ, you look buff! What kinda workout are you on?"

J'onn chuckled weakly, and tucked a hand in the pocket of his suit. "Jordan, I need a favor."

"Ah, man. You never just drop by for pleasantries, do you?" Lyons raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Were those your guys coming in earlier? The girl was  _hot_. Feel like I've seen her before somewhere… Come in, come in!"

Lyons pulled him into the hallway of his ridiculously large mansion in one of the richest neighborhoods in National City, and escorted him to a sitting area in the living room by the fireplace.

"Can I get you a drink? I have a bottle of the good stuff, single malt, twenty years old…"

J'onn let the man ramble on about the drink and watched as he poured two glasses and handed one over to him, raising his own. "To hot DEO agents, Hank."

J'onn smiled politely, and raised his own glass, before taking a sip. For what it was worth, the whiskey was incredible.

"Now, this favor… What are we talking?"

"I assume you've been following the news?"

"Yeah… man, it's your building, isn't it? Thank God you weren't there when it happened."

"I wanted to ask about Tristan."

Lyons froze for a second, then slowly brought the glass to his lips. "Yes… They wouldn't tell me anything earlier. But something's wrong, isn't it?"

J'onn sighed. "Someone killed him. In the hospital room. It looks like an execution, but we don't know who did it, and there's no camera footage."

Lyons' eyes widened, and for a second J'onn honestly wanted to believe that the surprise was genuine.

But they both knew better than that.

"Oh… That's… God." Lyons trailed off, getting up and walking towards a drawer. J'onn assumed that he was going to start raking up fake memories of him and Tristan, and figured this was the only window he was going to get.

His eyes lit up red as he glared at the man standing in front of the cupboard, already mumbling about Tristan.

But before he could focus on the man's memories and read his mind, Tristan turned around.

A cocked gun now pointed at J'onn's face.

"Don't worry, Hank. I made sure that you were nice and toasty by the fire first. I assume that's what you Martians like most."

J'onn froze.

* * *

 

Maggie took a deep breath as she stopped her bike a block away from the factory. It was well past sundown – her phone told her it was close to midnight.

But she knew that there was a big chance she wouldn't sleep ever again.

As she neared the building, she considered her options.

Barging in would mean certain death instantly. She had to be sneaky about it. Especially if Greene was there.

She sighed as she remembered the conversation they'd had outside the morgue. Standing up to him, ensuring him that she'd figure out what happened on that mission.

All of it had been fake, but there was at least a sliver of truth.

Maggie was going to find out everything about that Room and its corrupt agents, if it was the last thing she did.

Keeping Alex and her friends safe had really been all she ever wanted anyway.

She slipped into a back entrance, reaching for her gun and pulling it out of its holster.

Unsurprisingly, the main hall of the factory seemed empty. A thick layer of dust coated everything around her.

If this was what Kara had seen, then, yes. It would seem deserted.

But she knew better.

She ducked behind a machine at the sound of footsteps approaching, accompanied by muffled voices, but lifted her head behind it to see.

Two men were now standing in the center of the room, in black DEO gear. Maggie vaguely recognized them from seeing them around the DEO, but she was convinced that the one on the left was one of Alex's trusted right hand men during missions.

"… _Can't wait any longer. They're closing in on us._ "

" _Just as we expected._ " The man grunted. " _I'm telling ya, letting Danvers live was the worst mistake we could have made_. _If they don't know anything by now, I'm sure Sawyer told them about it. Should've killed her too when we had the chance_." The one on the left replied.

" _Everything's going according to plan. Lyons is taking out Henshaw, that'll be one less thing to worry about. Danvers can become acting commander of whatever's left of the DEO. Well, I think that's just her and that pathetic Schott kid_."

" _Don't forget her sister_."

The man on the right laughed. " _Right, how could I forget? Now come on, hurry. Boss says the next attack is planned for sunrise, let's go hear what he has to say_."

In front of Maggie's eyes, the men walked over to the wall and tapped one of the bricks. A portal appeared. As they stepped into it, Maggie ran over to the right of the portal, staying out of sight for anybody looking out, but still close enough to hear whatever was on the other side.

The hole started closing down slowly, and she realized that she had a choice to jump inside and risk everything to get answers.

But nobody could do anything with her information if she was dead…  _damn it_.

The choice was made for her, though, when the portal re-opened again, and a voice was audible.

"…  _Snyder is still on his way, leave it open._ "

Maggie wondered for a second how they could be so careless, before she remembered that nobody was supposed to be able to see the portal anyway.

Whatever happened on that mission must have made her able to see whatever was going on in that secret dimension of theirs.

She leaned closer until she was almost touching the portal with her shoulder, keeping her gun ready in case somebody stepped through and saw her.

" _We're moving on to phase 3._ " A grunt from the other side. " _9 AM. Nine more hours to get it done. Get to work. Oh, and…"_  A pause. " _If you happen to see Sawyer anywhere, feel free to put a bullet in the back of her head. For the greater good._ "

Maggie froze.

Not exactly because of the words, but the way they were said.

How familiar.

It struck her a second later, as she pulled herself away from the portal, feeling her throat close.

The man in charge, the one leading the operation.

_Jeff Greene._

Had it really been him all along, masterminding everything? Pretending to work alongside her?

_Oh god, she couldn't breathe._

As she moved further away of the portal and towards the corner of the room, she saw a group of three men step out, into the building.

For one quick second, Maggie thought that she could get away unnoticed.

Then, her eyes locked with the last man walking. The man from earlier. Alex's trusted second-in-command.

She was met with a hail of bullets, barely managing to dodge out of the way.

Three guns between her and the exit.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!

_Shit. Shit. Shit._

Maggie was ducked behind the piece of machinery she was using as cover, and pulled her handgun close to her chest.

From what she could tell, in the initial hail of bullets, she hadn't been hit – though that could change any second.

The men were yelling, and undoubtedly one of them had rushed back into the portal to yell for back-up.

Maggie knew that this was the end. She'd never get out of there alive.

But she'd be  _damned_  if she wasn't going to take some of those Cerberus lackeys down with her for what they did to the DEO.

So she took a deep breath, and jumped up from behind her cover, firing off round after round at the men in the center of the room.

She could only see two of them, and assumed that the third had headed back to the portal.

One well-timed bullet sent one of the men down, and she couldn't help but smirk, ducking back down at the retribution coming in the shape of rapid-fire bullets from the other man.

_Worth it._

Though she'd been so intent on firing at the two, that the man running up to her in the corner of her eyes came so out of the blue that she could  _barely_  turn her head before he'd tackled her onto the ground.

When she hit the ground, she saw stars. Cursing herself momentarily for letting her guard down and probably worsening whatever concussion she had, she didn't have much time to dwell on it before the man punched her in the face.

Her head snapped to the side, but with the man's face in plain view, she recognized him immediately. The NCPD SWAT leader.

Seeing the man's face terrified her beyond measure, because she'd  _worked_  with the man. Coordinated with him during dangerous raids, during joint taskforces and hostage extractions.

She'd  _respected_  the man.

"Miller!" She moaned. " _Please_ …"

The man didn't show any sign of remorse as he socked her in the jaw once again, leaving her breathless and unable to get up.

Were the last eyes she'd ever see  _really_  going to be those of a traitor?

_No_ , apparently the universe decided to buy her some more time.

Because she second she closed her eyes and braced for another fist to the face, there was a loud  _crash_.

Maggie looked up to see that the ceiling had a big hole in it, debris raining down into the open space as Kara landed on the floor, looking ready to murder.

Miller seemed distracted enough for one second for Maggie to kick him in the chest, sending him backwards. But she didn't get further than that, instead crawling away from him weakly with whatever upper body strength she had left after the fight.

" _Maggie_!" She heard Kara yell, before she realized that Kara probably wasn't able to see any of the men.

Though it didn't take Kara long to figure out that Maggie was  _terrified_  of something, as she kept scooting away from the empty space in front of her.

The blonde narrowed her eyes and made an educated guess about where the assailant was, firing off her heat vision into the direction.

Maggie's eyes widened as the man in front of her screamed, as if he was being burned alive, as he dropped to the ground.

"H-he's gone!" She said quickly. "The other guy must have run into the portal."

Kara ran to her side and checked her over quickly, wincing slightly at the sight of blood dripping down her nose. "Is the portal still open?"

Maggie nodded, glancing to the brick wall before pulling Kara closer by the hem of her suit until they were almost face to face. "I'm  _dead_ , Kara. If I don't walk out of here right now, then they'll send more people after you, and Alex, and  _everyone else_." She hesitated, swallowing a mouthful of blood with a grimace. "… Listen to me, okay? I'm going to yell out names, and you need to  _remember_  them, alright? And tell J'onn and Alex."

"Maggie…" Kara shook her head. " _No_. We're going to fly out of here and get you back to safety, get you in witness protection if we have to, but you're going home to Alex."

Maggie laughed weakly. "Just… Tell Alex to move on, okay? I know that she'll never forgive me, I don't expect her to. But she deserves someone who she can trust."

The words made a stab of pain shoot up Kara's spine, but she shook her head again vehemently. " _No_. I won't."

The detective grimaced, getting up from the floor slowly, a helping hand from Kara supporting her around her waist. "Suit yourself."

Kara watched with a frown as Maggie reached for her gun and checked how many bullets she had left, before walking over to the brick wall.

At that moment, Kara realized what exactly Maggie was going to do.

Immediately, she used her super speed to get in front of Maggie, pulling her away from the wall. " _Stop_!"

"Get  _off_  me!" Maggie yelled, trying to push Kara back but realizing that it was useless. If anything, it just fatigued her body more.

"Going on a  _suicide_  mission isn't the answer! Alex is  _never_  going to forgive you if you do this!"

"I don't  _deserve_  her forgiveness!" Maggie yelled back, realizing that things were getting critical. She had to get Kara out of there before the blonde was accidentally sucked into the portal, or worse.

But Kara ignored her, instead grabbing her by the shoulders. "This is the  _only_  way in or out of whatever room or dimension they're in, right?"

Maggie nodded weakly.

"Well, then, we have to find a way to either close the portal, or smoke them out." Kara continued. "But we need a  _plan_ , and we need  _you_. So  _please_. I know you know that you made mistakes, but  _this_  is the way to rectify them."

Maggie seemed to calm down at least slightly, and Kara knew that she had to press on.

"As soon as you told me that you were coming here, I went to Alex to tell her. And she told me to get you home, no matter  _what_. So if you jump into that portal now, just know that I'll be  _right_  behind you."

"They could  _kill_  you." Maggie snapped back.

But Kara only huffed. "I'm taking that risk if it means getting you back to my sister."

Suddenly, Kara's words hit her like a punch to the gut.

Because all of the retorts, the pushing-Kara-away-and-jumping-anyway's were off her mind, as she found herself sinking to her knees and sobbing.

She felt Kara pull her into her arms, a sudden gust of wind indicating that her feet weren't on the ground anymore, but she was barely aware of it.

She knew that they were never going to win this war.

* * *

"You don't want to do this, Jordan."

Lyons laughed, cocking his head. "You're a loose end, J'onn J'onnz. You should have died with the rest of them."

"Why the DEO?" J'onn raised his hands slowly, subtly trying to reach for the tracker in his shoulder. If he could tap it twice, that would send an emergency message to the servers.

He wasn't sure what Lyons was up to, or what technology he thought he possessed that could beat him, but he didn't want to wait around to find out.

Before he could touch his own skin, though, the man stopped him. "Ah, ah, J'onn. No touching. Just keep your hands up and I'll make it quick."

"At least tell me before you kill me." The martian hissed through his teeth. "Why did you bomb the DEO?!"

"We didn't destroy the DEO." Lyons replied. "We made it  _better_. We cut the rotten parts, so only the strong will survive."

"So you took a bunch of my agents and  _brainwashed_  them into thinking they were irreplaceable?!" J'onn huffed. "You're a bigger idiot than I thought."

Lyons growled. "You should have never stuck your nose in our business. I could have spared you, like Schott or Danvers."

"You may kill me, Jordan, but you'll  _never_  destroy the DEO, or what we stand for."

J'onn lowered his arms, suddenly feeling nothing but anger. "And I'll make you and  _everyone_  in that organization of yours  _pay_  for what you did to  _my_  people."

"I won't hold my breath."

As J'onn ran forward, hands stretched out to wrap around Lyons' throat, the CEO fired his gun.

A shot rang through the air.

* * *

Now that most of the rescue workers had been sent home, the rubble of the DEO site seemed eerily quiet, apart from the sporadic camera flash or conversation.

Alex had flashed her badge at the tape, but the two posted officers had already pulled it back before she could even reach into her pocket.

She guessed they recognized her from the news.

The agent took slow steps around the rubble, kneeling down once in a while to pick up pieces of debris that she recognized.

Computer keys. Broken Erlenmeyer flasks.

Further down, a piece of the table at the command center she'd leaned over thousands of times.

As much as it had weirded her out at first, the DEO had been her true home.

And now, all there was left was ruins.

A voice in her head told her that Maggie had done all she could given the circumstances. She'd risked her own life to make a deal with the organization, sparing J'onn, Winn, Kara and her from death at the hands of one of their assassins.

But in return, Maggie hadn't been able to stop  _all of it_  from happening.

On the contrary.

She got back up from her crouched position and explored further. A few volunteers were already clearing the debris, using heavy machinery to drop large chunks of building into containers by the side.

If Cerberus really was some sort of illuminati-like elite group that wanted to take over power in National City, then they had to get names before they could do anything else.

Map out the branches, to see how deep the network ran in both the DEO, NCPD and undoubtedly – the government.

They already had a couple of names.

Maybe all they needed is to get back to those names and figure out what bound them together in order to find the rest of them.

Alex clenched her hands into fists and swallowed thickly.

They had to give them a taste of their own medicine.

_Decapitation._

Cut off the heads, and the rest would surely follow.


End file.
